BrainStuff Classics: How Did Botox Come from Bad Sausages?

make them disappear with the blink of a injection. Botox has become a popular cosmetic treatment. And while it's pretty common knowledge at this point that botox works thanks to a carefully controlled toxin, what's less well known is that we know about that toxin thanks to a batch of killer sausages. In the early eighteen hundreds, it was this perfectly poisonous tube pork medley that justin this Kerner, a German physician, first suspected as the source of the potentially

deadly muscle relaxing bochulinum toxin. Sausage of questionable freshness was not uncommon in turn of the nineteenth century Germany, but after mysterious outbreaks of sausage poisoning during the Napoleonic Wars repeatedly killed scores of people. Kerner got wise to the cause after rigorous testing of hundreds of sausages and self injections of the suspected toxin. He became the first to identify and publish a clinical description of the toxin and

its effects. Food born botuli is um is caused when the things we eat are infected with spores of Claustrodium bachu linum microbes, a nearly bulletproof bacteria commonly found in soil around the globe. When the microbe contaminates meat and occasionally produced, it flourishes provided the environment is oxygen depleted. This makes it the perfect deadly pairing with poorly preserved

foods and salted meats. Bachu linum toxin in the wild can cause vision problems, difficulties swallowing, vomiting, and severely weakened muscles, but people are so resourceful that they've figured out a way to harness the toxin and focus its effects in specific ways. Case in point the popularity of a wrinkle raising serum known by the brand name botox. The use of which has jumped by more than seven percent since the year two thousand, according to the American Society of

Plastic Surgeons, and this increase only reflects cosmetic use. Botulinum toxin is quite useful for a range of medical maladies, including excessive sweating and migraines, and it can also relax the perpetually contracted muscles of people who have cerebral palsy. The art of looking good, just like botulinum toxin, has a long and dubious history. Ancient Egyptians painted their eyelids with a toxic cocktail of copper or in lead, and

the exposure lead to insomnia and brain damage. Greeks smeared their faces with a lead based cream, which eventually caused madness. Going to these great lengths may seem a bit ridiculous, especially when one considers sacrificing health for beauty, but it's

not as far removed as you may think. We still use mercury and some eye cosmetics as a preservative, all though some states have banned the element, and in the U two thousand, one third of thirty three red lipsticks examined by a Safe Cosmetics advocacy group were found to contain lead. As of sixteen, the US Food and Drug Administration doesn't have a set limit for lead in cosmetics.

We do have a set of standards for commercial cure to meat production, however, making most cases of botulinum toxin poisoning a thing of the past. Though, just to be safe, avoid any canned food that's bulging outward or that has a dent along one of the cans seams, and don't

give honey to babies under one year of age. Yep, that is a botulism safety precaution to Today's episode was originally produced by Tristan McNeil and is based on the article Ridiculous History Toxic German sausages are responsible for botox on how stuff works dot com, written by Laurie L. Dave. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and it's produced by

Tyler Klang. Or more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.