Studies show botox injections impact the brain

Although millions of people receive Botox injections to reduce the lines associated with natural aging, multiple studies suggest these seemingly harmless wrinkle-reducing shots may impact brain health.

For instance, some research shows Botox manages to make its way into the central nervous system.

Additionally, studies on rat found that when the active ingredient in Botox was injected into one side of the brain it could be found on the opposite side of the brain. Even Botox injected into the rats’ whiskers showed up in the brain.

Although these studies used more potent, purified forms of the toxin and not the diluted form found in the cosmetic injections, its ability to travel into the nervous system raises concerns nevertheless.

Botox affects brain signals from hands

A Swiss study on humans also found Botox affects the areas of the brain associated with the hands. This is because the face and the hands occupy areas of the brain that neighbor one another. The researchers found that the paralyzing effect of Botox on the face inhibited sensory input to the brain in this area, thus altering brain mapping of the hands.

Researchers theorized that loss of movement in the face caused by Botox injections could affect touch sensation in both hands. They called for further studies to determine whether Botox also affects other parts of the body.

Botox impacts the brain’s ability to read facial expressions

The human brain is highly adept at reading and responding to facial expressions — it is primary to how we communicate. We instinctively mimic facial expressions in one another as a way to understand, communicate, and empathize. However, Botox erases this vital aspect of communication by paralyzing facial muscles. Researchers believe this inhibits the person’s ability to interpret the emotions of others through their facial cues.

In fact, a study in 2011 found subjects with Botox injections were less able to read the emotions of others compared to those who had received different types of fillers for wrinkle reduction. Additional research suggests Botox also makes it more difficult for a person to feel their own emotions.

In other words, Botox injections can hinder the ability to empathize, read emotions in other people, and even feel your own emotions.

Other cosmetic fillers also potentially problematic for the brain

Fillers other than Botox used to reduce the signs of aging have risks as well. For instance, some people have reported that filler injections blocked blood flow to their eyes and caused blindness. There have been about 50 reports of this happening.

Although it’s rare, fillers can also get into an artery that feeds the brain, thus causing a stroke. Four reports of this happening have been reported.

Compared to the millions of people who use fillers this means these complications are pretty rare, but users should be aware of the potential risks.

Complaint reports about Botox and fillers are common

Given the popularity and easy access to Botox and fillers, more studies should be done to evaluate their safety. As for now, anecdotal reports on beauty forums, reported complaints, and lawsuits paint a frightening picture the average person isn’t aware of.

For example, some Botox users claim they suffered from devastating brain injury, chronic pain, double vision, and difficulty breathing after receiving Botox injections.

Additional complaints on online forums include drooping eyes and eyebrows, intense pain and headaches, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, dizziness, and more.

The consumer watchdog group Public Citizen found Botox was linked to 180 life-threatening conditions, 87 hospitalizations, and 16 deaths during a 10-year period. Because Botox doesn’t have much regulation, it is believed harmful side effects go largely under reported.

Other adverse side effects from Botox that have been reported include difficulty swallowing, respiratory compromise, generalized muscle weakness, a drooping eyelid, pseudoaneurysm of the frontal branch of the temporal artery, flesh-eating disease, sarcoidal granuloma, Fournier gangrene, and abnormal curvature of the spine in the neck, and death from anaphylactic shock. 

Meditating daily stops aging brains from shrinking

Sadly, as we age our brains begin shrinking, and loss of brain tissue means loss of brain function. But there are some simple things you can do each day to prevent this. The brain is highly malleable — or plastic — meaning it readily grows and adapts to input and stimulation. Much like a muscle, your brain operates on the “use it or lose it” principle.

Studies have found that people who have been meditating for seven to nine years had increased grey matter in sensory areas of the brain compared to control groups. It’s believed this is because meditation teaches you to be mindful of your body, breath, and physical sensations — all in an attempt to find relief from the hamster wheel that is the human mind.

But the good news is you don’t have to meditate that many years to change your brain.

Change your brain in 8 weeks of meditation

A follow-up study showed just eight weeks of daily meditation thickened many important areas of the brain, to the point where 50-year-olds were showing the same amount of grey matter as people half their age.

The areas of the brain meditating thickens include:

• Decision making and working memory
• Learning and memory
• Emotional regulation
• Empathy
• The ability to see things from different perspectives
• Neurotransmitter production

Meditating shrinks the brain’s fear center

Equally important, meditating shrinks the amygdala, the area of the brain that generates fear, anxiety, and aggression. This results in reduced stress levels overall.

The participants in the study were told to meditate 40 minutes a day. However, they still showed good results with an average meditation time of 27 minutes. Other studies show even just 15 to 20 minutes a day produces significant positive changes.

Meditating before you exercise can reduce depression better than either exercise or meditation alone, finds another study.

Mindfulness practices that benefit brain health

Meditation isn’t the only mindfulness practice to improve brain function and health. Although its benefits are profound enough to make it a daily routine, also consider these additions:

Yoga. Yoga is a proven way to improve brain function and stave off memory loss. A study had one group of people do 15 minutes a day of brain training exercises and a weekly one-hour brain training class. The second group did a yoga class one hour a week and 15 minutes a day of meditation.

After 12 weeks, both groups showed enhanced cognitive function. However, the yoga group also reported more elevated moods and improvement in “visuospatial” memory, which is important for balance, depth perception, and the ability to navigate the world.

The yoga group also showed better focus and the ability to multitask.

Tai Chi. A recent study found tai chi is very protective and supportive of brain function. Study subjects did one hour of tai chi twice a week for 12 weeks. After the study, they had significantly higher levels of brain compounds that indicated the generation of new neurons and improved plasticity — the ability of the brain to make new neuronal connections and pathways. Both of these functions are paramount in protecting the brain from aging.

Tai chi has another brain benefit — it promotes better balance. Can you stand on one foot easily? How about with your eyes closed? You should be able to. Poor balance is an indication the cerebellum, the area of the brain responsible for balance and coordination, is degenerating too quickly.

A degenerating cerebellum does more than make you unsteady — it also contributes to more rapid degeneration of the rest of your brain.

One of the primary functions of the cerebellum is to serve as a gatekeeper, regulating information that goes to the rest of the brain. When the cerebellum degenerates, too much sensory input floods the brain.

Symptoms may include:

• Restless leg syndrome
• Tinnitus
• Hypersensitivity to stress, light, and sound
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Poor metabolic function…
• …and other symptoms you wouldn’t normally associate with poor balance.

Tai chi is a Chinese art based on a series of slow, flowing motions and breathing exercises and has been shown to be excellent for improving balance.

Other ways to slow or prevent accelerated brain degeneration include daily exercise, an anti-inflammatory diet, functional neurology rehabilitation and optimization of the brain, and functional medicine protocols to reduce inflammation and reverse chronic health disorders.

Ask my office for more advice on how we can help you prevent Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Fecal microbiota transplants improve autism symptoms

The exploding rates of autism, which forecasts a surge in adults with the disorder in the coming decade, has pushed the boundaries of autism research. Now, dramatic results from a 2019 study show a significant and lasting reduction in autism symptoms among children who underwent daily Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) for seven to eight weeks.

FMT involves transplanting gut bacteria from a healthy, carefully-screened donor to the colon of the recipient. It is successfully used to treat colitis and Clostridium difficile and is being investigated for other disorders, including obesity and autism spectrum disorders.

Autism rates have more than doubled in the last 20 years and continue to rise, along with other childhood brain development disorders. This rise is increasingly being traced to imbalances in the immune system that affect brain development, and immune health is increasingly being traced to gut bacteria, or the gut microbiome.

In other words, gut health profoundly impacts brain health. In the developing child’s brain, poor gut health can trigger imbalances in brain development and myriad symptoms, including symptoms of autism. In addition to brain-based symptoms, many children with autism also struggle with gastrointestinal symptoms and poor digestive function. Both parents and researchers note a correlation between gut symptoms and autism symptoms.

Past research has shown children improved after taking an antibiotic that killed off “bad” gut bacteria, however the improvements were temporary, even with concerted probiotic use.

The 2019 Australian study used FMT on children with severe autism and monitored the effects two years later. The two-year follow up showed very promising results.

Parents reported their children’s autism symptoms steadily declined throughout the treatment period and during the following two years. Professional follow-up evaluations showed an average reduction rate of autism symptoms of 45 percent. They also showed an almost 60 percent reduction of gut symptoms.

Prior to beginning treatment, researchers found that the subjects with autism had poor gut bacteria diversity and were missing key beneficial bacterial strains, such as Bifidobacteria and Prevotella. Because of how profoundly gut bacteria impact the nervous and immune systems, researchers believe this affects how their brains develop.

Study subjects were first treated with an antibiotic, a bowel cleanse, and a stomach acid suppressant. Then they were given FMT daily for seven or eight weeks.

Follow-up stool analysis showed the FMT treatments substantially increased gut microbiome diversity and introduced beneficial strains of bacteria. At the two-year follow up, both these markers had gone on to improve.

The research team is now working on optimizing dose and duration for clinical use one day. They are also working on a trial using the therapy for adults with autism spectrum disorders.

Although we can, thankfully, influence our gut bacteria, we nevertheless come into life with gut microbiome “signatures” that start before birth, as maternal gut microbiome diversity is a factor. C-section delivery, reduced or lack of breastfeeding, antibiotic use in childhood, and diets high in junk foods and low in fiber all play a role in establishing unhealthy gut microbiomes.

Although FMT is not yet clinically available, it points to how vital gut health and a healthy gut microbiome are to the developing child’s brain. A key component in a healthy and diverse gut microbiome is a diet diverse and ample in plant fiber — people should be eating primarily vegetables at every meal. Children should be eating 20 to 40 grams of fiber a day (depending on age) and adults should be eating 25 to 40 grams a day.

The earlier you start your children on a vegetable-heavy diet the more readily they will eat these foods as toddlers and children.

The Hazda people of Tanzania, one of the last remaining hunter gatherer populations on the planet, eat 100 to 150 grams of plant fiber a day and exhibit one of the healthiest gut microbiomes on the planet; Americans have the worst.

Aim for about seven to 10 servings a day of produce. One serving is a half-cup of chopped produce, or one cup of leafy greens. Because sugary foods can be inflammatory, opt for veggies and fruits that are low in sugar and unlikely to destabilize your blood sugar.

Adults should eat at least three to four servings of produce per meal – that’s 1.5 to 2 cups of chopped veggies or 3 cups of leafy greens. Or break that up into five meals if you eat more frequently to stabilize low blood sugar. Children’s needs vary with age.

Work your way up gradually with fiber consumption if you’re not used to eating it — too much at once will overwhelm the digestive system and cause problems. Increase your daily fiber intake by 1 to 2 grams a day. Equally important is to avoid foods and chemicals that promote bad bacteria and kill good bacteria, such as junk foods, sugars, and the use of toxic cleaning chemicals.

Ask my office for more ways to support your gut microbiome.

How grief and heartbreak can turn into physical illness

We've all heard the term "Died of a broken heart," but most don't realize it's actually possible. Intense stress brought about by profound grief can sometimes damage the heart and spike inflammation in the body.

Grief is a powerful emotion, rendering many of us unable to function normally for a time. Mortality rates in those who are widowed is highest in the first six months after the death of a spouse and decreases over time. Heart disease accounts for the majority of these deaths.

We've known for a long time that inflammation is damaging to the body. It's at the root of major health disorders such as heart disease, cancer, obesity, and autoimmunity. Inflammation is also at the root of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

A recent study shows us that a broken heart isn't just an emotional metaphor, but can be the result of physiological changes that happen when we are under intense emotional stress.

The study delved into how emotional stress increases inflammation. Researchers found that grief can increase systemic inflammation and lower heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of how one's body responds to stress. Lower HRV and raised inflammation are risk factors for heart-related illness and death.

Subjects who had recently lost a spouse and reported "elevated grief" were found to have inflammation levels 17 percent higher than those who didn't feel as strongly, and the top third had levels an impressive 54 percent higher than the bottom third. Simply put, grief can kill us through inflammation.

The findings applied to both women and men, and in particular for older adults.

A second study looked into "broken heart syndrome," a rare but serious condition in which the heart weakens and bulges following extreme stress such as grief. The disorder mainly strikes women over 55, and while sometimes fatal, tends to resolve over time.

The researchers found the syndrome is linked to how the brain controls the nervous system under stress.

Normally, the sympathetic nervous system ramps you up to cope with stress by increasing heart rate and respiration. Once the stress is gone, the parasympathetic nervous system calms the body back down to normal levels.

The researchers found that in subjects who had survived broken heart syndrome, signaling was deficient in key parts of the brain associated with emotion and stress, resulting in a lack of calming after the grief.

Simply put, a broken heart may start in the brain.

Support your body through grief

While we all must take time to move through grief, there are ways to make the process easier on your body.

Compounds for pain and stress relief. Grief can result in physical pain. Physical and emotional pain are processed by the same area of the brain. These natural pain-relief compounds may help ease both:

• Vitamin D
• Essential fatty acids such as cold-water fish oil
• White willow bark, a natural anti-inflammatory reportedly similar to aspirin
• Herbal adrenal adaptogens such as rhodiola and ashwagandha

Reduce inflammation. While ongoing grief can keep inflammation levels high, do your best to calm it with these methods:

• Avoid high sugars and carbs
• Avoid processed foods, especially commercial seed oils
• Keep blood sugar stable by eating frequently enough, and eating enough protein and healthy fats such as cold water fish, nuts, and supplemental omega 3.
• Eat plenty of vegetables and keep fruit (sugars!) to a minimum
• Take resveratrol and curcumin in combination
• Support glutathione levels by taking s-acetyl glutathione or its precursors such as n-acetyl cysteine
• Exercise regularly but no so intensely that you raise inflammation levels
• Drink plenty of filtered water

Allow your body to rest. Grief is exhausting, so give your body support with the following:

• Give your body plenty of time to sleep
• Avoid working too much in an effort to hide from emotions
• Avoid drinking too much alcohol
• Practice daily stress-reduction habits such as mellow yoga, stretching, or chi gong

We all must grieve, but when grief leads to losing a sense of life's meaning, it can become dangerous. If you are under intense emotional stress, contact my office to find out if your body's response is becoming dangerous, and learn how to mitigate the effects.