{"id":8714,"date":"2013-07-26T04:59:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T04:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2018-11-03T05:13:42","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T05:13:42","slug":"botox-now-also-shrinking-oil-glands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/botox-now-also-shrinking-oil-glands\/","title":{"rendered":"Botox \u2013 Now Also Shrinking Oil Glands In The Skin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Botox is not good only for wiping out that last remaining hint of emotional expression from your face; it can also shrink the oil glands in your skin.<\/p>\n<p>A quick post about an interesting study I found today. For some time now researchers have speculated that a neurotransmitter acetylcholine affects sebum production. Korean researchers wanted to test this. They incubated human sebocytes (sebum producing cells) in acetylcholine and showed that it increased the activity of the cells in a petri dish, suggesting it can increase sebum production in humans.<\/p>\n<p>They also conducted a human trial using Botox, which can inhibit the acetylcholine pathway. Here are the details of the study:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>20 participants (6 men and 14 women)<\/li>\n<li>10 of the participants had oily skin and 10 dry or normal skin<\/li>\n<li>Split-face study, one side was injected with Botox and other side with an inactive placebo (saline)<\/li>\n<li>Double-blinded, so neither the researchers nor the participants knew which side got Botox and which got the placebo<\/li>\n<li>The participants received 4 injections at different parts of cheeks<\/li>\n<li>The participants were only treated once (i.e. 4 injections per cheek during a single visit<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here\u2019s a graph that shows the results.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/botox-sebum-reduction.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1391\" src=\"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/botox-sebum-reduction.png\" alt=\"Graph showing the reduction of sebum production and skin pore size after Botox injection\" width=\"914\" height=\"682\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: Zheng Jun Li, et al. Regulation of lipid production by acetylcholine signalling in human sebaceous glands. Journal of Dermatological Science. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0923181113002193\">https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0923181113002193<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here are the interesting points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Botox reduced sebum production by about 30% (from 210 to 140) in 4 weeks in people with oily skin, with the placebo side showing no changes. Botox seemed to normalize some of the abnormalities in oily skin and after 4 weeks their sebum output was almost comparable to people with normal skin, though still somewhat higher.<\/li>\n<li>People with dry or normal skin also showed some changes, but these didn\u2019t reach statistical significance.<\/li>\n<li>Botox also reduced pore size by 18% in people with oily skin, again with no changes in the placebo side or in people with normal or dry skin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What\u2019s interesting about this is that the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is also involved in sweat production. This could explain why my skin always feels much oilier in hot and humid conditions (welcome to Thailand), but when I go somewhere cold and dry (like my home country, Finland) I don\u2019t get that oily feeling and my skin generally does much better.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.harvard.edu\/fhg\/updates\/update1005b.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Botox can help with excess sweat production too<\/a>. 12 \u2013 14 injections per armpit paralyzes the nerves that secrete acetylcholine causing almost immediate reduction in sweat production that lasts for 6 to 10 months.&nbsp;It looks like something similar happens with regard to sebum production. It\u2019s too bad they only followed the participants for 4 weeks.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know about the long-term side-effects of Botox, so I\u2019m not sure I would recommend it for controlling sebum production. But there you have it anyway, an option for those inclined to try it.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some less invasive ways to reduce sebum production:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 13px;\"><a title=\"Topical Green Tea: One Of Nature\u2019s Most Potent Acne Treatments\" href=\"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/topical-green-tea-for-acne\/\">Topical Green Tea: One Of Nature\u2019s Most Potent Acne Treatments<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Help I Have Oily Skin! What Can I Do About It?\" href=\"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/oily-skin-remedies\/\">Help I Have Oily Skin! What Can I Do About It?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"More Evidence For Topical Treatment Of Oily Skin\" href=\"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/more-evidence-for-topical-treatment-of-oily-skin\/\">More natural ways to reduce sebum production<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Photo Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/35034345972@N01\/2421936996\/\">ekai<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Botox is not good only for wiping out that last remaining hint of emotional expression from your face; it can also shrink the oil glands in your skin. A quick post about an interesting study I found today. For some time now researchers have speculated that a neurotransmitter acetylcholine affects sebum production. Korean researchers wanted &#8230; <a title=\"Botox \u2013 Now Also Shrinking Oil Glands In The Skin\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/botox-now-also-shrinking-oil-glands\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Botox \u2013 Now Also Shrinking Oil Glands In The Skin\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81,47],"tags":[136,46],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8714"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11022,"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8714\/revisions\/11022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acneeinstein.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}