Got Botox in Your Brain?

Okay, unlike past jokes about the sheer inanity of injecting a deadly toxin into your skin just to look younger, scientists in Italy have released some pretty serious research showing that yes, in fact, it could be a bad idea.

A new study in The Journal of Neuroscience finds that injected botulinum toxin, the key ingredient in Botox, can get transported across the membranes of muscle cells and into nearby terminals that send signals from nerves to the brain.

After injecting the toxin into the muscles around rats' whiskers, the study team saw its effects in the so-called facial nucleus, a cluster of neurons in the brain that is linked to the main nerve in the face. This would suggest that despite previous belief, botulinum may be a long-distance traveler, which would have very real implications for Botox users.

In case you had not heard, botulinum is a neurotoxin that is described by some experts as the most toxic protein known. The Wikipedia entry for botulinum morbidly notes that in theory, a few hundred grams could kill everyone on Earth.


The toxin is produced by bacteria and, when consumed, can lead to pretty severe food poisoning. According to the FDA, even tiny amounts of botulinum can induce weakness, paralysis, fatigue, dry mouth, and trouble swallowing.

To be fair, botulinum has its place in the pantheon of dangerous substances that can treat diseases: The drug has been used since the 1950s to combat ailments ranging from migraines to spastic disorders to excessive sweating. Botox wasn't approved by the FDA for cosmetic use until 2002, but it's quickly become one of the more common treatments among people seeking to fight the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

So far Botox has been used with an assumption of safety, because the toxin is supposed to be localized at the injection site—it targets only the wrinkley bits and doesn't go traveling to other parts of the body.

The latest findings mean that the toxin could get into your brain, where it messes with a protein known as SNAP 25 that controls the release of neurotransmitters, chemicals that relay information from the brain to the rest of the body. Breaking apart SNAP 25 in the brain leads to paralysis.


The timing of this study's release is apropos, because in February the FDA announced a full-on safety review for Botox and one of its medicinal cousins, Myobloc, after at least 16 people died following injections.

While real people suffering from debilitating diseases might still consider botulinum treatments, I can only hope those seeking it for pure vanity might now think twice. Want my advice? Go read the Picture of Dorian Gray instead, and then go out and enjoy life.

Guys Like Hot Babes on Cars, News at Eleven

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Annals of Obvious Research, bringing you the latest and most cutting-egde studies that provide strong evidence for things that you probably think you knew all along.

From the pages of this month's NeuroReport comes a study by Knutson et al. titled "Nucleus accumbens activation mediates the influence of reward cues on financial risk taking."

In other words, brain scans show that heterosexual men are more likely to buy expensive things on impulse if you drape scantily clad women over your merchandise.


"This is the first study to demonstrate that emotional stimuli can influence financial risk-taking," lead author Brian Knutson of Stanford said in a university press release.

Knutson and colleagues came to this startling revelation by looking at fMRI scans of male undergrads who were shown positive, negative, and neutral images. Erotic images were used for the positive category, snakes and spiders for negative, and office supplies for neutral.

The press release notes: "In case any of the subjects found office supplies more repellent than snakes and spiders, the researchers had the men rate each image after the scans." Thank goodness for controls.

The participating guys, who had been given $10 American for their troubles, then had to decide whether to gamble part of their earnings in increments of a dollar or a dime.

"After people had seen those erotic pictures, they tended to pick the high-risk gamble more often, especially if they had been picking the low-risk gamble before," Knutson said.

The authors caution that their findings only apply some of the time, specifically when the men had to make a decision very soon after viewing the images. Future research will look at how long the effect lasts, as well as whether the same thing happens in women.

But I'm sure ad people everywhere are cheering in unison at this news. Now it's only a matter of time before skin-flashing models start appearing in ads for everything from chicken sandwiches to dishwashers. Oh, wait …

"C" Is For ...

I *love* the taste of chillies and chocolate, and lucky for me the neighborhood World Market carries several different types of gourmet bars of at least 60% cacao with some type of chili mixed in.

My favorite for baking is World Market's own brand of 64% dark with chipotle chili. I chop up about a bar and a half for these cookies, which—if done right—should come out chewy with just a bit of crispiness on the edges.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1.7 oz. instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tabl. vanilla
2 eggs
~1 cup chopped chocolate

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 325°F.
• In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, and pudding mix.
• In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until creamy.
• Using a spoon, blend the flour mixture into the butter mixture, adding in about a third at a time.
• Stir in the chocolate.
• Drop dough about a tablespoon at a time onto the cookie sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are golden and the centers are slightly puffed up.
• Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to racks to cool completely.

The keys to good chewy cookies, I have found, are to use room-temperature butter, do not use an electric mixer to blend in the flour, and bake only until just the edges look done—any longer and the carryover heat will make the cookies too crispy. The pudding mix is a great trick I picked up for keeping the cookies moist for days—if they last that long!