Unintended Botox Effects

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to do something about your facial lines and wrinkles, be warned: It turns out that muscle-freezing Botox injections not only stay with you, they MIGRATE and affect muscles that you might not effected–it makes them TWITCH.

It turns out that Botox, which is injected into facial wrinkles and lines, has previously unsuspected effects on muscles other than the ones it’s injected into–even muscles distant from the injection site. In addition, Botox seems to cause twitching.

Botox works by interrupting the signals between nerves and muscle tissue, causing temporary paralysis of the injected muscles, whether in the facial muscles that produce forehead wrinkles or spastic muscles in patients with cerebral palsy.

When rats underwent a single injection of Botox into a muscle of the hind leg, four days later, as expected, the injected muscle was completely paralyzed. However, the same muscle in the OPPOSITE leg showed decreased twitch responses to electric stimulation.

Sixteen days later, the Botox-injected muscle still had decreased function, twitch responses, and muscle tension, while twitch responses and muscle tension in the opposite muscle also remained significantly reduced. This suggests that, in addition to causing temporary paralysis of the injected muscle, Botox causes lasting changes in "distant" muscles as well.

Anesthesiologist Steven L. Shafer says, "If you’re a patient undergoing surgery who has had a recent Botox injection, it might be a good idea to mention it to your (doctor)."

If you want LONG LASTING good looks, WITHOUT twitch, the BEST thing you can do in the new year is LOSE WEIGHT. If you’ve had trouble doing this before, we’re here to help, with Anne Strieber’s famous diet book "What I Learned From the Fat Years." Make a New Year’s resolution to read it!