Botulinum Toxin's Origin
Let me tell you a story. Make yourself comfortable and let's begin..
The Fascinating Discovery of Botulinum Toxin
Once upon a time there was a very clever doctor called Dr Justinus Kerner. Nearly two hundred years ago, he was trying to figure out why lots of people in his town in Germany were getting ill. The patients were suffering with muscle paralysis, difficulty swallowing and failure of their breathing muscles. It was very serious. Dr Kerner followed clues, like a detective, to try to find out what had made them ill. He discovered that all the people who were sick had been eating sausages! Dr Kerner wondered if the sausages had made them sick.
There were no fridges back then - they had not been invented! So sausages and other foods used to get spoiled, smelly and horrible quickly. Dr Kerner studied the sausages and discovered a certain type of bacteria (called Clostridium botulinum) were making a protein he called "sausage poison" (botulinum toxin) in the sausages. The patients had a type of food poisoning.
From "Sausage Poison" to Medicine
Dr Kerner was very interested in botulinum toxin because he wanted to make food safe so people would not get ill any more. He did lots of scientific experiments and made an amazing discovery - in big doses, botulinum toxin was poisonous - but in tiny doses it could be a brilliant medicine that could help lots of people! Dr Kerner was extremely clever and ahead of his time to realise the potential so soon after discovery - he was a brilliant man.
Over the following years, other doctors and scientists refined and tested botulinum toxin. They all wanted to harness it's powers for good. The scientists worked together to make the toxin safe and controlled. The purified botulinum toxin became the medicine we now know under brand names such as Botox.
A Medical Marvel
Doctors started using the botulinum toxin medicine to help people with serious health problems. It helped children with cerebral palsy who had tight muscles, making movement difficult. It helped adults with uncontrollable painful muscle movements. It helped people suffering with chronic migraines, people with excessive sweating and people with overactive bladders. Then it helped people with eye muscle problems; find out more about this in the next story!
So, the brilliant doctor discovered a powerful medicine in the yucky sausages that has been helping improve lives ever since.
Well done Dr Kerner!
The End
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