Sunday, June 26, 2011

New App BuildMyBod

There really is an app for everything today, including elective body modification. A plastic surgeon named Dr. Jonathan Kaplan has announced that he has launched a new app that will be offered globally called BuildMyBod. The app will run on iOS devices and allows someone thinking about plastic surgery to build their own perfect figure in the virtual world.

The app not only points to the sections of the body that you might want to work on, but also gives you the fees for the surgery as well. The fee schedule even gives the cost of the anesthesiologist as well. The app offers procedures for men and women to check out. The clinic the doctor that invented the app works in is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but the app helps prospective patients find surgeons around the country. The app launched on iOS devices and a version is being developed now for Android devices as well.

BuildMyBod from Jonathan Kaplan M.D. on Vimeo.

According to Kaplan, “Consumers want information to make better buying decisions, especially about cosmetic surgery, where prices for the same procedures can vary by as much as 35%. As the dramatic growth in the development of apps for the iPhone shows, people want the convenience of having information they can use to make important decisions on their phones. It seemed logical that being able to research cosmetic surgeons and procedures that way would be of real value to consumers and surgeons.”

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Vampire Facelift


The Natural Way to Supernatural Results...
Vampire Facelift™ combines the science of beauty with the science of cell biology to create the most beautiful and healthy face in the most natural way--using the youth-generating properties locked in a secret place within your own blood.

Vampire Science Secrets


When a cosmetic physician uses a filler to sculpt the face or mouth, she is trying to replace the volume that is lost with normal aging (loss of muscle and loss of collagen).
If you've had fillers already in the effort to sculpt your face, then what was put in your face probably came as a syringe inside a box.

With the Vampire Facelift™ procedure, the filler does not come from a box, it comes from you!
The cosmetic physician takes your blood in the way you would normally give blood for a lab test (same method and about the same amount).

Then she (by one of several methods) separates the platelets from the other main components of the blood.

Next, she activates the platelets to produce platelet-rich fibrin matrix (PRFM).
PRFM is like a gel, similar to the other fillers, and can be injected to sculpt the face--and it came from your body. But, here's the best part: not only does PRFM cause an increase in the volume, but also PRFM acts like a rejuvenating agent with at least 7 growth factors normally used by your body in healing.  
When the growth factors activate the unipotent stem cells of the skin, then the unipotent stem cells generate New Skin, New Blood Flow, New Collagen--New Tissue! Not only do you see more volume (as with other fillers), but you also see a younger more glowing complexion.

You do not need to transplant stem cells...they are already there! Without unipotent stem cells, you would not be able to heal a wound.
In this video (from April 2010), Dr. Runels made history by announcing the first of his designer procedures, the Vampire Facelift™...

How It’s Done
Blood is removed from a vein in the patient’s arm.

The blood is processed to isolate the platelets from other blood components.

The platelets are then activated using one of several methods, the most common being exposure to calcium chloride, to form the PRFM (a rejuvenating elixir made by the person’s platelets).

This gel is then injected back into multiple areas of the face in the specific areas that define the Vampire Facelift™ to induce growth of new collagen, skin tissue, and blood vessels around each injection site.

Collectively, this activity lifts the skin away from the bone, creates skin volume and new blood flow, thereby sculpting the face and creating a younger complexion for a more youthful and more aesthetically appealing appearance.

This improvement continues for approximately 12 weeks and then lasts at least 15 months.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Zerona Cold Laser Treatments

Treatment with the Zerona laser is easy, painless, and carefree. Each session takes less than an hour; the low-level laser is used for a total of 40 minutes. The laser is applied to the targeted area, which is generally a combination of the waist, hips, and thighs, for 20 minutes. The patient then turns over and the very same treatment is applied to the opposite side. The minimum suggested treatment period is two weeks, with three full sessions each week. You should consult your physician about the maximum results for your body type, weight, and target loss.

Many patients have described the session as relaxing, and even Zen. Some even try to catch up on phone calls with friends and loved ones as they lay down. You simply lay in a comfortable, stationary position for twenty minutes at a time, in a relaxed environment, while the cold laser does all of the work. Since the Zerona uses cold laser technology, you feel nothing during the procedure. You may feel a bit different and lighter as you exit the treatment center due to the bio-stimulation that begins in your body.

While all doctors’ recommendations are different, many will suggest that you increase your fiber and water intake leading up to the procedure to increase the speed of results. Others may encourage a detoxifying footbath or massage immediately following treatment. Each of these procedures is voluntary, and varies from office to office. What remains the same are the results.

You are always welcome to listen to music, or just close your eyes and rest during the procedure. Listening to white noise such as running water or ocean waves is always a relaxing way to spend the forty-minute sessions. Ultimately, the treatment with a Zerona laser is a stark contrast to traditional methods of fat reduction procedures such as liposuction and gastric-bypass surgery. With Zerona, you can simply lie down, relax, and let the laser do all the work.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Face exercise: a fountain of youth?



The platinum blonde you see here is Greer Childers, the 60-ish founder of the BodyFlex workout. In the clip above, filmed in the 1990s, the perky, tanned, and toned exercise instructor demonstrates a face exercise called the Lion. First, she instructs, make an "O" shape with your mouth, then drop it down so you're stretching the top half of your face. Next, stick out your tongue. With your "O" mouth down and your tongue extended, look up to the sky and hold your breath. (Childers exhales and inhales as if she is sucking in the last bit of oxygen on Earth.)

If you follow her lead, Childers promises, this exercise will "lift and smooth out the skin"—an all-natural face-lift. The comments below the video on YouTube express some skepticism. "It looks like she's exorcising demons out of her," says one. "I pissed my pants laughing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" writes another.

Proponents of facial exercise have long been the butt of jokes. I may look like a freak when I'm squatting at the gym, but at least I have plenty of company, and I can claim I'm working on improving my muscular strength. Face workouts, by contrast, are taboo both because they look idiotic, and because women (and men) prefer to hide the things they do to prevent the ravages of age.
Illustration by Alex Eben Meyer. Click image to expand.One of those women, I learned recently, is my mother. During a recent call home, I mentioned that I'd been watching that hilarious Greer Childers video. That's when my mom confessed: She does face exercises, in secret, in the bathroom. I never knew. Neither did my father.

My mother is mentally stable, and she has few wrinkles for a woman of her age. Does that mean these crazy contortions might actually slow down the aging process? Is it time that we pay face-exercisers the respect they've long been denied?

Facial exercise is no recent fad—some historians even claim it helped Cleopatra keep her jowls at bay. In the early 20th century, a man named Sanford Bennett wrote rapturously about his face workouts in a book called Exercising in Bed. Troubled by how quickly his face and body had aged, Bennett began exercising at age 50; after two decades, he was a regular Benjamin Button, known by some as "the man who grew young at 70." Jack LaLanne, TV's "godfather of fitness," was also a proponent of face exercise. "You know why so many of you students look older than your years?" LaLanne asked his audience. "And why your jowls are hanging and your chin is hanging and your neck's all craggy looking? … Because the muscles are out of shape!"

That's not the half of it—the face-exercise field is full of people who market their system as the first and the best. Senta Maria RungĂ©, author of 1961's Face Lifting by Exercise, claimed to be the true originator—the pioneer of "the only method in the world by which one can lift the face naturally and restore a youthful contour."

There's also Californian Carole Maggio, who founded her business, Facercise, in 1981. "I was newly married to a man 16 years my senior," she says, explaining the origins of her career. "After six months of marriage, he sweetly whispered into my ear, 'You're prematurely aging.' " Maggio, already a spa owner, began putting her face through the paces. When friends and clients asked about her newly youthful looks, she spread the gospel with a trio of books. Maggio says she's traveled to 18 countries to tell men and women about Facercise and claims to have advised King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan. (She has also since remarried.)

Carolyn Cleaves at age 61.Then there's 65-year-old Carolyn Cleaves, the founder of Carolyn's Facial Fitness in Washington State. A former model with a degree in English literature from Harvard—she repeats this fact several times during our interview—Cleaves says the skin on her face started to sag after she lost 50 pounds. She didn't want to get a face-lift, lest she look like her expressionless mother. Cleaves' solution: designing her own facial exercise program—15 minutes, 28 exercises, three to five times a week—complete with DVDs, books, and a skincare line.


I am 22 and don't have any wrinkles—yet. Even so, Maggio and Cleaves told me that I'm already far, far behind on my exercising. To make up for lost time, I went to see Valeria Georgescu, the leading face-exercise guru in Washington, D.C. Georgescu is the creator of FACE (Facial Activation Conscious Engagement) Val-U. (Yes, it's a play on her name.) She's 46, works at the Mandarin Oriental spa, and has been exercising her face for 20 years. She doesn't have a single wrinkle.


On a recent Friday afternoon, I met Georgescu in the Mandarin's quiet, incensed downstairs spa. The first advice she offers is that I shouldn't sleep with the side of my face touching the pillow—it presses and contracts the facial muscles. Already, I'm not feeling good about my facercising future—sleeping is generally an activity I relish for its lack of rules.

I have vowed, though, to keep an open mind. And so we begin with some basics. Georgescu starts by sliding on long white gloves. It's important, she says, never to touch your face while exercising it because fingertips are textured and have a damaging grip.


Georgescu tells her clients to exercise their faces for five minutes each morning and five minutes in the evening, working the forehead, cheeks, eyes, lips, and chin. First, she teaches me Greer Childers' classic Edvard Munch face. Next, we move into an eye squeeze. The goal here is to contract the side of your eye, where crow's feet nest, without moving the other parts of your face. (Give it a try—it's like a much creepier version of a wink.) After that, I'm tasked with moving my labial fold, the part near the side of my nose where lines inevitably form. (Georgescu likens this look to that weird quivering snarl on a dog's face just before he bites.) After raising my cheeks up and down to get the facial blood flowing, I repeat the phrase Oooooooh, chaaaaaaals, like I'm saying Charles in a British accent but dropping the r. Georgescu tells me to exaggerate the vowels with my face movements, puckering for the first part, then spreading into a half-smile as I contract my cheeks. Oooooooh, chaaaaaaals.

None of these exercises was easy—my cheeks actually went into spasm after Oooooooh, chaaaaaaals. I found it particularly tough to isolate individual muscles; when Georgescu told me to move the area around my eyes, I couldn't do it without flexing the rest of my face. The other big challenge was stopping myself from laughing. Thankfully, Georgescu and her cohort don't take offense. "I just laugh with them, why not?" says Carolyn Cleaves. "I'm laughing all the way to looking youthful. Go ahead and make fun of me."

While laughing is OK, Georgescu says there are some things a face exerciser is not permitted to do. "You ever see runners?" Georgescu asks me. "They have horrible faces." I stay quiet and nod. I do not mention that I run half-marathons. "[Runners] don't contract their faces," she says. "They kind of let it flop. And every time it flops, it stretches, like a breast."


Before I resign myself to a life without sleeping or running, I should probably figure out whether any of these claims make sense. When I question Cleaves, Georgescu, and Maggio about scientific research, they instruct me to look at their clients' before-and-after pictures. "Try it for a month, five minutes a day, and that's your research," Georgescu says.


What does the medical establishment have to say? Dr. Murad Alam, the chief of cutaneous and aesthetic surgery at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, says there's basically no research in the field of facial exercise. Just because we don't have hard numbers doesn't mean the exercises don't work, he says. There just haven't been any controlled, scientific studies to prove or disprove their efficacy.


Botox works because it paralyzes muscles: If you stop moving your forehead, you don't get wrinkles. Since relaxing certain muscles reduces wrinkling, it's possible that tightening other facial muscles could have a similar effect. But certain realities of aging can't be wiped away with exercise. Over time, the amount of collagen and elastic in our skin decreases, giving our faces a crepe-paper-like appearance. Malar fat pads in the face also move and thin, creating wrinkles. Make wacky faces all you want—none of this is going to change.


But even if the wrinkle-abatement claims seem dubious, there are other reasons to exercise your face. Toward the end of my session, Georgescu confesses she is worried about me. "You have engaged nothing in your face at all when I speak," she chides. "You know how you lost that? From cell phones and from the Internet—because you're always texting and you're not looking."

She's right: My countenance is not in a constant, Lucille Ball-esque state of animation. Not only is my lack of facial engagement jump starting my aging process—Georgescu says it also may explain my recent dating drought. Flirting, she says, requires facial muscles. If I consciously raise and engage my face during the day, she promises I'll attract more attention.


On the Metro ride back from the Mandarin, I try to practice. An older man, his face expressionless, is sitting next to me reading a book. I try to smile at him; he stares back quizzically. I contract my cheeks, relax my forehead, and attempt to contort my muscles into some kind of Mona Lisa smile. By the end of the ride, I'm exhausted, my cheeks hurt, and no one has flirted with me. Then again, I'm just a beginner—perhaps practice makes perfect. Oooooooh, chaaaaaaals. Oooooooh, chaaaaaaals.


resource: Slate Magazine

Friday, January 7, 2011

10 forecasts for cosmetic surgery in 2011

This year will see even greater interest in cosmetic medicine than in the past, if doctors’ forecasts hold up. Plastic surgeons and dermatologists always predict booming business ahead, of course, but this time they may be right.


They’re expecting a comeback from the recent economic slump, which cut into patients’ ability, if not their interest, in getting cosmetic treatments, especially surgery. From 2008 to 2009, for example, the number of facelifts dropped 30 percent, while breast implant operations were down 12 percent and tummy tucks, 13 percent. Figures for 2010 are not yet available.
If consumer income economy rebounds, as many predict, cosmetic doctors’ offices are likely to fill up again.
“As the economy continues to improve, people will return,” says plastic surgeon Dr. David Shafer of New York.
That’s just one of many trends to look for this year:


SKIPPING THE SURGERY
In recent years, patients seeking to fight the signs of aging have been eagerly embracing alternatives to plastic surgery, and that trend is likely to continue.


Facelifts are down 40 percent in the past five years, while injections of fillers such as Juvederm, made by Irvine-based Allergan, are up 49 percent, according to surveys by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or ASAPS, based in Garden Grove.


In the coming year, “demand for facelifts and other facial rejuvenation surgery will increase,” the ASAPS forecasts. That prediction is based on the shaky assumption that non-surgical alternatives haven’t permanently undercut the market for surgery.


“The trend toward more non-invasive plastic surgical procedures will continue,” says plastic surgeon Dr. Michael A. Persky of Encino. Among the examples he cites are long-lasting fillers such as Sculptra; medium-powered lasers such as Fraxel for skin care; and the newly approved Cool Sculpting device from Zeltiq, which uses cold temperature to shrink unwanted fat.
“There will continue to be an increase in non-surgical procedures which will fill, tighten and uplift skin,” predicts plastic surgeon Dr. Ed Domanskis of Newport Beach, although he foresees a return of surgical patients too. He also expects patients will want doctors use new skin-tightening devices in parts of the body that currently a seldom treated.
“We will extend their use to different parts of the body, like the knees as well as excess skin over the elbows,” he says.


LOTS OF FAT FIGHTERS
“Non-surgical, non-invasive body contouring devices will continue to rule,” says says plastic surgery consultant Wendy Lewis.
“Zeltiq Coolsculpting was the most significant FDA approval in this space of 2010, marking the first scientifically proven non-invasive fat reduction treatment, and there are more systems to come. More variations on [radio frequency]-, heat- and light-based energy for fat melting and skin tightening are on the horizon.”
An injectable fat-fighting drug is also possible this year, she says.
“If Kythera gets FDA approval for its fat-dissolving drug based on phosphatidylcholine in 2011 or 2012, it has the potential to revolutionize the body-contouring market by providing a clinically proven injectable solution to localized fat deposits,” Lewis says.
Plastic surgeon Dr. John Di Saia of San Clemente and Orange predicts that patients will remain fascinated with new fat-fighting technologies, but he is skeptical about the results.
“Gimmicks in medicine and less invasive technologies will continue to attain public attention in 2011. Zeltiq, for example, will likely have a period of popularity, but then ‘cool off’ as actual results temper consumer decision making,” he says.
“This is the pattern seen with new technology for ‘fat fighters’ over the past decade. No new technology has commanded the market for long and there have been several in the last decade or so. We have had ultrasound-assisted liposuction, power-assisted liposuction, laser-assisted liposuction, injectable ‘fat dissolvers,’ and multiple marketing-assisted variations on these themes. Consumers continue to be wowed by marketing and frequently do not investigate before they partake. ” Di Saia says.


FILLERS GALORE
“My 2011 forecast definitely includes fillers, such as Juvederm, Radiesse and Artefill, becoming more and more popular,” says dermatologist Dr. Lorrie Klein of Laguna Niguel. “I predict they collectively will become as popular as Botox, as more and more aging baby boomers see their faces ‘sinking’ and also realize that filler treatments, if done expertly, can rejuvenate the face as well or better than a surgical facelift.”
That forecast assumes a big leap in popularity for various fillers, which totaled about 1.6 million procedures in 2009, compared to 2.6 million for injections of Allergan’s Botox and similar wrinkle-fighting drugs.
The ASAPS doesn’t dismiss the work of plastic surgeons, but it makes a similar forecast: “The growth and popularity of cosmetic injectables (Botox, Dysport, Sculptra, Radiesse, Evolence, Juvederm, Restylane, Perlane etc.) will continue to increase as products continue to evolve and new players enter the market.”


 YEAR OF THE CHEEKS

“I also predict that cheeks will become the ‘new lips,’ ” Klein says. “Women and also men are seeking a younger, fresher look that Botox can only provide a part of. I have seen an exponential growth in cheek plumping in my practice during 2010 and expect it to continue to grow as the baby boomers become educated about what is making them look older, and how to fix it.”
“It’s not about just filling in wrinkles anymore, it’s about ‘re-inflating’ the cheeks, chin, temples and other facial areas that are no longer smooth or rounded,” she says.
Reality TV star Heidi Montag is one of many stars who has had fat injections to plump up her cheeks, although few admit it, as Montag does.


Actress Heather Locklear also may have had filler injected into her cheeks, according to Shafer. Many cosmetic doctors think actress Megan Fox has done so, and actress Raquel Welch apparently has too, says plastic surgeon Dr. Tony Youn. Klein believes that actresses Demi Moore and Madonna have also made their cheeks more prominent with injections.

BUTT ALSO
“Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, and Jennifer Lopez have made a shapely rear-end a must have accessory,” says the ASAPS. “In the coming year patients will be seeking posterior body lifts, buttock lifts, surgical and nonsurgical buttock augmentations to shape and augment their buttocks.”
FAT IS YOUR FRIEND

Many plastic surgeons also extract patients’ fat from the abdomen, then inject it to plump up other parts of the body.


“Fat transfers … to face, hands, buttocks and breasts will grow significantly in 2011,” predicts cosmetic surgeon Dr. Andre Berger of Beverly Hills.
“Fat grafting will continue to improve and become more defined, detailed,” and be used in more parts of the body, says plastic surgeon Dr. Ashkan Ghavami of Beverly Hills. “I have seen a huge increase and demand for buttock fat transfer and this will continue to trend upward.”
Such fat transfers, particularly with technologies that concentrate the fat’s stem-cell content, are a hot topic. “hot,” Lewis says, but independent medical researchers haven’t yet figured out the degree to which those techniques are actually effective or whether they’re just a hot marketing phenomenon.
Lewis expects that 2011 will produce more clarity. “New data will help cut through the confusion,” she predicts.


BETTER BOTOX

Some doctors foresee the introduction of more effective drugs similar to Botox.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Fleming of Beverly Hills predicts that the wrinkle-smoothing effects of these products won’t fade after three-plus months, as Botox tends to do.
Domanskis goes further. “A Botox product will be developed that will last longer and even be a cream type that will penetrate the skin and not require an injection,” he says.
His forecast of a Botox-like cream has a basis in fact, but Domanskis may be overly optimistic about the timing. Revance Therapeutics, based in Mountain View, Calif., says clinical trials of its no-needle Botox-like lotion will be done in 2012.


RECOVERING FROM WEIGHT LOSS

America’s battle with obesity could lead to more business for plastic surgeons.
“The number of patients seeking bariatric surgery will continue to skyrocket. There were approximately 200,000 gastric bypass procedures performed just this past year. There are about 5,000 plastic surgeons. If even a small fraction of these patients who have lost massive amounts of weight undergo cosmetic procedures to remove the hanging, excess skin, their numbers will overwhelm plastic surgeon’s capabilities!” Domanskis says.

The ASAPS agrees: “As our population increasingly realizes the dangers and health consequences of obesity, the number of patients seeking plastic surgery procedures for body contouring after dramatic weight loss (abdominoplasty, lower body lift, upper arm lift, etc.) will rise in 2011.”

HAIR AGAIN

Two experts foresee an expansion in hair restoration procedures.
“The Neograft system of automated hair grafting is a significant development because it opens up hair transplantation to many more clinics and consumers,” Lewis says.
Hair-transplant specialist Dr. Alan J. Bauman of Boca Raton, Fla., says, “Less invasive hair transplant procedures using advanced devices (like NeoGraft) that help the surgeon efficiently transplant healthy follicles with no linear scar will continue be a top area for R&D over the next few years.”But he also foresees an expansion of hair-loss treatments: “compounded ‘designer’ minoxidil (like Formula 82M), at-home laser treatments (LaserCaps and handhelds), in addition to new diagnostic tests and tools like hair loss genetic testing and the HairCheck trichometer.”
WHAT NOT TO EXPECT
A year ago, a new variety of breast implants called “gummy bear” implants seemed close to approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Now that seems less likely, Lewis says.
“No one is even talking about gummy bear implants coming in the U.S. anymore, since the regulatory process has virtually crippled the industry from launching new products,” she says.
resource: The Orange County Register