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Effective on more than just wrinkles
A shot of botox against the frown lines in the forehead, everyone knows that by now. But did you know that doctors also use botulinum toxin for a variety of medical purposes?
Botox is both the abbreviation and brand name for botulinum toxin. The bacterium Clostridium botulinum makes this protein. It is very toxic, but in tiny amounts it is a safe remedy for wrinkles and a number of ailments.
It blocks the impulse transfer from the nerves to the muscles, causing muscles to relax. Frown lines and crow’s feet as a result of tense muscles disappear after a botox injection. In addition, doctors are increasingly using it for the problems listed below.
strabismus
strabismus can be the result of a problem with the eye muscles. If they skew one eye, you are not looking at the same point with both eyes. Surgery allows a surgeon to shorten or move the eye muscles to straighten the eye. If surgery is not possible, Botox offers an alternative. It paralyzes muscles, which changes the position of the eye. For example, a doctor can also test what the effect of an operation would be: do the complaints decrease or do you start seeing double when he stops a muscle?
Migraine
In the magazine of the American Medical Association scientists published an article analyzing a large number of studies on botox as a headache medicine. They concluded that botox helps a little bit in people who have more than 15 migraine attacks each month: they had 2.3 attacks less per month.
Why Botox reduces severe headaches is not yet clear. It may help because it relaxes muscles and ensures that pain signals are not transmitted.
Depression
German researchers of the MHH clinic for psychiatry discovered that a botox injection helps with depressive symptoms. Thirty depressed subjects were given a liquid injected above their nose: half a placebo, the other half botox. The botox group was already more positive after two weeks. Six weeks after the injection, their most severe symptoms were even halved. The control group that had not received Botox did not improve.
Excessive sweating
Botox also blocks the nerves in the skin that stimulate the sweat glands, causing the glands to produce less or no sweat at all. In about 90 percent of people with excessive perspiration does botox work well? It is especially effective under the armpits and there such an injection does not hurt so much. Treatment of the feet and hands is possible, but very painful and the effect does not last that long. After a few months, new nerve endings will grow anyway, causing you to perspire again.
Similarly, botox can also ‘turn off’ the nerves that control the salivary glands. That inhibits excessive salivation in patients who drool due to, for example, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy or drug use.
Overactive bladder
Do you pee small amounts extremely often? Can you barely hold it once you have to pee? This may be the result of a overactive bladder. The bladder muscle then contracts too often, even if your bladder is not yet full, causing you to feel a strong urge to urinate.
Botox injections in the bladder have been shown to work just as well against an overactive bladder as drugs. They inhibit the activity of the bladder muscle. This has the desired result in about 80 percent of patients, but you have to undergo treatment every time, because botox wears off. Another disadvantage is that the botox is sometimes too effective, so that you cannot urinate for a while and you have to catheterize yourself a few times a day.
muscle tension
Shutting down muscles with Botox is also used in various conditions where the muscle tension is too high or muscles contract involuntarily. For example, it can help with twitching eyelids, convulsive squeezed eyes (blepharospasm), spasticity, vaginismus, muscle problems due to multiple sclerosis and dystonia, a neurological disorder.
If an expert doctor administers botulinum toxin, the chance of side effects is small. Sometimes the local effect is too strong, but the effect of botox decreases by itself. Because botox wears off over time, a botox treatment must be repeated again and again.
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