I just learned that botox is so toxic that it makes sarin gas look breathable, in fact according to the wikipedia list of toxins ordered by toxicity it is the single most dangerous toxin to life as we know it in the universe so far.
What on earth is done to it so that it can be injected into someones cheeks?
In: 279
Nothing is done to it!
It is injected in very small quantities, inside the face, specifically because it cause muscle paralysis. When the small face muscle can’t move anymore, then the skin doesn’t fold and wrinkle anymore.
Doctor do so in an extremely control way as to not damage anything and not paralyze anything needed to survive.
It’s a procedure that been perfected over time.
Edit to add: As people have mentionned below, it can also be used for tons of medically valid reasons and saves lives everyday, but my response was about cosmetics injections primarily.
As others have said, the botulism toxin itself is not modified, and is used locally for specific effect.
What makes it safe-ish is that the source of botox introduced to the body during treatment is finite and localized.
Labs produce botox by cultivating *Clostridium botulinum* bacteria. The toxin is isolated and collected, but the bacteria themselves are discarded. Botox injections contain no bacteria.
When a person is infected with Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria can continue to produce botulism toxin. The body tolerates small, finite amounts of botox, but becomes overwhelmed if infection produces botulism toxin faster than the body can neutralize it, or if emough toxin was introduced at the time of infection. Instead of being localized to an injection site, botulism toxicity can affect the whole body.
Edit: The bacteria that creates the botulism toxin does so only under anaerobic conditions. Nevertheless, uncontrolled introduction of botulism toxin through either infection, injection, or ingestion creates risk of much greater amounts of toxin being introduced to the body, which are not necessarily confined to specific and safe locations.
I feel like the other answers don’t get directly at the issue.
There’s an old adage that “the dose makes the poison”. Everything is toxic in sufficient quantity. You can poison yourself to death with water if you drink enough in a short period of time (there have been several examples of this).
The reason Botox treatment doesn’t kill you is because they don’t inject enough to kill you. It’s still toxic, it works by paralyzing the targeted muscles, but the dose is small enough that some muscle paralysis is (hopefully) the only bad effect.
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