Could Botox, Acetylcholine, and Memory Problems Be Related?

I appreciate your research and you ask an interesting question. It is known that Botox tends to bind quickly in the local tissues. whether any dissemniation via an inadvertent intravascular injection could affect memory neurons is questionable and even if it did would its effect last long enough to produce an ongoing clinical issue. I have forwarded your question to the scientific research team at Allergan, the manufacturer of Botox Cosmetic botulinum toxin.

The injection of Botox for cosmetic purposes has not been linked, in any capacity, to memory loss as that would infer direct toxin exposure to the brain. To better relate to your point, if such an element did exist, there would be compromise of other functions beyond just memory loss that would be effected (i.e. think of how a stroke effect the brain).

 

Be healthy and be well,

James M. Ridgway, MD, FACS

There are a lot of assumptions in your statements, and while this is good for a study, it's not good for definitive answers without some serious medical testing. Most of your statements are based on the idea of Botox actually being in the brain itself to affect these transmissions, which it's not. While there is acetylcholine in the brain, there is also acetylcholine just in nerves, which have nothing to do with neurotransmission to the brain. There are studies to show that no neurotoxin goes directly into the brain with regular cosmetic Botox usage but only into injected muscles, and thus the neurotransmitters there are affected only. In this case, it's causing the neurotransmitters that make the muscles move inhibited, not the neurotransmitters in the brain, which would have to do with memory and memory functions. So the long and short, there is no medical evidence that cosmetic Botox has any affect on the memory.