時差N小時:肉毒桿菌毒素

In our beauty conscious culture, people will goto great lengths to improve their appearance.Liposuction, tummy tucks, silicone implants--it's allbeen done. But surely we wouldn't resort toinjecting ourselves with a toxic substance thatcauses botulism, would we? Of course we would, inthe form of Botox injections, widely advertised as aquick, easy way to remove wrinkles and crow's-feet.

在這個崇尚美麗的文化里，人們會竭盡全力改善自己的外表。抽脂，緊腹手術(shù)，硅膠填充，應(yīng)有盡有。但想必我們不會對自己射入一些會引起肉毒中毒的有毒物質(zhì)，會嗎?當然我們會注射肉毒桿菌毒素，它被大肆宣傳為一種快速、簡單除皺和眼角魚尾紋的方法。

Botox is the marketing name given to a neurotoxin called botulinum toxin A. This toxincomes from the bacterium that produces the poisons responsible for causing botulism.Botulism is a form of food poisoning, the most serious symptom of which isparalysis.Botulism-related toxins attach to nerve endings, where they block their ability totrigger muscle contractions. If muscles can't contract, they can't move, resulting in paralysis.

肉毒桿菌素只是市場對肉毒桿菌毒素A這種神經(jīng)毒素的一個叫法。這種毒素來自細菌，它們可產(chǎn)生大量能引起肉毒中毒的毒素。肉毒中毒是食物中毒的一種，它最嚴重的臨床表癥就是身體癱瘓。肉毒毒素牽動神經(jīng)末梢，阻止肌肉收縮，肌肉一旦不能收縮，肢體則無法運動，這樣就導(dǎo)致癱瘓。

So why would anyone risk injecting Botox into his or her body? There are legitimate medicalreasons, such as treating spasms and involuntary muscle contractions.Although the paralyzingeffects are not permanent, they can last up to eight months.And as long as Botox is injecteddirectly into a particular muscle group, there's little chance that it will spread to other parts ofthe body.

那么為什么人們還要冒險往體內(nèi)注入肉毒桿菌呢?其中就有諸如治療痙攣和無意識性肌肉收縮等合法醫(yī)療因素。雖然麻痹的作用不是永久性的，但也能持續(xù)八個月。只要肉毒桿菌毒素直接注入到特定的肌肉組織，就不太可能擴散至身體的其它區(qū)域。

As a beauty treatment, Botox does what it's meant to do: paralyze muscles. For example,injecting botox into muscle groups near the eyes will temporarily paralyze those muscles,keeping them from scrunching up. Consequently the wrinkles, or crow's feet, they causetemporarily disappear. In time, however, wrinkles reappear.Not even Botox canpermanently reverse the march of time.

對于整容來說，肉毒桿菌確實做了它該做的：麻痹肌肉。例如，在眼睛附近的肌肉組織注射肉毒桿菌毒素，會暫時性的麻痹那些肌肉，使它們不皺起。結(jié)果就是皺紋或眼角魚尾紋會暫時性的消失。然而，時間一長皺紋會重新出現(xiàn)。即使是肉毒桿菌也不能讓時光永遠倒流。