Dermal Grafting for Acne Scars

I came across this fascinating post in an Acne forum where this girl basically describes how her dermatologist has filled out her rolling acne scars with collagen harvested from the back of her ears and has transformed her face to nearly flawless. He combined it with needling of the scar first, then filling a few depressions each time.

Pierre Fournier describes a very simple collagen extraction technique from unwanted fat pockets, so the donor site does not require stitching. Large quantities can be harvested and stored in deep freeze for future use or topical application (mix with night cream for autologous stem cells).

Wonder if we can combine these two technique and add in dermarolling for maximum benefits? Hmmmm.........

The Food Pyramid

This is an excerpt from "Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat" by Rudy Rivera MD and Roger Deutsch.

It is interesting that the official USDA food pyramid recommends a large sampling of grains and fruit each day. This pyramid may represent a way to ensure adequate nutrient intake in the form of vitamins and minerals, but it certainly is no way to lose weight. Whereas the USDA food pyramid was not intended as a with loss plan, normal healthy eating should promote normal weight.

As noted by Dr Barry Sears in his book The Zone, the food pyramid closely resembles the proportions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates fed to cattle in feedlots to fatten them for slaughter. I suggest you rethink the food pyramid. If it fattens cattle so well, why would it make us thinner? Observe that "food pyramid" Americans aren't getting thinner; they are getting fatter. And that's not just a coincidence.

The 2001 Annual Meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity revealed preliminary results from a three-centre study comparing the Atkins high-protein diet to a conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate plan. The researchers concluded that the Atkins diet produced favourable results on weight, HDL (High-Density Lipoproteins, a combination of fat and proteins which carry cholesterol from the cells to the liver for breakdown and elimination from the body), triglycerides (the main type of stored fat in animals), and retention of study subjects.

The low fat plan showed favourable effects on total cholesterol and LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein cholesterol is commonly referred to as "bad cholesterol") and is thought to be a major risk factor for heart disease cholesterol.

Lose the pyramid, folks, it's a bust. And to make your diet work even better, determine your food sensitivities and lock out the processed grains and sweets.

Highlights of 2007

As the year draws to a close, it is apt to remember all that has happened to make 2007 a most memorable one.

Move & Re-Brand

Top of the list has to be our move from Faber House in Orchard Road to our current location in UE Square Shopping Mall. It was a difficult decision as we valued our proximity to Somerset MRT Station. However, the lack of visibility was a killer, and the great UOL unhelpful (understatement of the year!).

So in July, we packed our belongings and in a record three days, moved everything over to UE Square.

We decided to shorten the clinic name from "Simply Aesthetic Rejuvenation & Contouring Clinic" to "Simply Aesthetic". We hired a graphic designer to create a new logo. A brochure soon followed, and our new bags are now in production.

New Team

We've had a few changes in staff earlier in the year, but are delighted with our current team. Mery, who has been with us from day one, is the Clinic Manager, and effectively ensures smooth running of our services.

Ivy joined us mid-year, and has become our champion in machine therapy. Her favourite is undoubtedly the Radiofrequency machine. She takes great pleasure in re-moulding a sagging face and melting away unwanted fat.

Dyna is our latest addition. A Staff Nurse from the Philippines, she has been crucial in getting our liposuction service off the ground. She has had to learn all about Medical Aesthetics, and is currently undergoing in-house training to become a Therapist like Mery & Ivy.

New Machines

We started off 2007 with six machines. We end with about twenty! It all started slowly enough in January, with the acquisition of our "Chocolate" (Diamond Contours Biomesosculpture) machine. Then suddenly, from August onwards, we've been picking up over one new machine every single month! We can barely move for machines now! But that's pretty cool, since we really can provide a very comprehensive range of treatment options for weight loss in particular.

Intensive Training

The rate at which Medical Aesthetics is advancing is tremendous. Comparing this field to say Anaesthesia, there really has been nothing added to routine Anaesthetic practice for the last 10 years! Although we do not provide every aesthetic treatment in our clinic, it was only when we were training Dyna that we realised how much has been added since Ivy joined us!

Training received this year included:

• Curl Lift & Lipofilling Course with Dr Pierre Fournier (Singapore, Aug 2007)
• 3rd Asia Pacific Aesthetic Medicine Conference (Singapore, Aug 2007)
• Arcadia Laser Course (Singapore, May 2007)
• Radiofrequency in Aesthetic Medicine (Bangkok, Nov 2007)
• Minimally Invasive Facial Aesthetic Surgery (Manila, Nov 2007)
• Water-Jet Assisted Liposuction Training (Singapore, Nov 2007)

Looking Forward to 2008

We look forward to offering new and exciting treatments to complement our current services. With strategic alliances locally, as well as in Hong Kong and Manila, we are confident of being at the cutting edge of aesthetic medicine in Singapore.

As we near the peak in our time of rapid growth, we continue to seek a suitable Therapist to join our team. We have also been waiting for additional space to become available at UE Square.

2007 brought many surprises which we did not anticipate. We have embraced many of the opportunities presented and taken the clinic to new heights. We look forward to new opportunities in the coming year, and can only guess at the possibilities ahead.

Doctors turn fat into stem cells to repair breasts deformed by cancer

Source: The Electric New Paper

For the first time, doctors have used stem cells from liposuctioned fat to fix breast defects in women who have had cancerous lumps removed.

The procedure, still in an experimental stage, will be welcome news to those who go through lumpectomies, where a portion of the breast is removed.

For such women, left with 'cratered' areas and breasts that look very different from each other, the options have so far been limited.

Implants? Those are generally for reconstructing breasts after mastectomies, in which the whole breast is removed, but they aren't designed to fix odd-shaped deformities from lumpectomies or radiation.

Explained Dr Karol Gutowski of the University of Wisconsin-Madison: 'Each (problem) is so different, there's no little thing you can just pop in there.'

Mini-implants of fat tissue?

That has been tried, too, but the fat tissue is often re-absorbed by the body or it dies, turning turn hard and lumpy.

Other treatments: Making the other breast smaller to match, transplanting a back muscle to boost the flawed breast, or rearranging tissue to more evenly distribute what's left.

But these involve surgery and leaves scars.

And the deformities left by a lumpectomy can be significant because as much as a third of a woman's breast may be removed.

That is why the recent study - done in Japan and reported on Saturday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium - has generated such interest.

CELLS THAT SURVIVE

The key is the presence of the stem cells - master cells that can replenish themselves and form other tissues in the body.

Fat cells are rich in stem cells and doctors think the stem cells will keep the tissue from dying and will form lasting mini-implants.

In the study, half the liposuctioned fat was processed for stem cells then combined with the unprocessed fat and injected into the breast.

The company sees potential for cosmetic breast augmentation of healthy breasts, but for now 'our plan is to focus on an unmet medical need' in cancer patients, he said.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons says doctors must be cautious about using fat cells for cosmetic purposes until more is known.

Internet Brand Hijacking

I started receiving e-mail from a chap named Leo a couple of days back. He claims to be the "Principle of Checking Department" of Shanghai Ou Pu Information Technology Inc. He said someone was trying to register the .cn and internet brand of simply-aesthetic and we were offered first rights to our brand.

Cost of protecting our brand? 30 EUR a year for the .cn domain and 100 EUR a year for the internet brand. Minimum registration period: 10 years!

Ridiculous price!

Then I found this website discussing Chinese con artists pulling the same trick on various people around the world! They use many company names, but the message is the same: pay to keep your brand. And these guys call and call and call! The poor folks in the US get it real bad... The calls happen in the middle of the night!

They are persistant. And yes, they have called the clinic too. I wonder how many people have actually fallen for their trick and paid up. Interesting that they choose to con people in EUR instead of US$ now...

Repeating ALCAT

It's a year since I first checked my blood for food intolerances. At that time, we were still relatively inexperienced with the food intolerance test. My results were most depressing. I had to give up chilli, tapioca, wheat, duck, lamb, chicken, eggs, basil, coffee..... The list did go on, and on, and on....

I've been getting rashes again recently, and sniffing more than usual. I don't stick to the list very well, but it seemed like my body was changing again. Anyway, we repeated the test on Wednesday, and the results came back today! Yep! It's that fast nowadays!

But before I tell you about my new results, suffice it to say that I have not been well this week. My tummy has been playing up really badly: cramps, nausea, diarrhoea, bloating. You name it, I've suffered it! I just assumed food poisoning, but couldn't understand why it lasted so many days.

Anyway, lo and behold, my trigger foods have changed! Quite dramatically! A lot of the things I do really like eating I can now safely eat again! Yay!!!! 

BUT...

Peanuts are now a problem. And tomatoes! And MSG! And coconut and sweet potatoes (so yam is out...). And milk!

Grapefruit, tapioca, safflower and buckwheat are constant between the 2 tests. So those are obviously genetic intolerances. 

We've had tingkat dinners delivered to the clinic for the last 2 months. That would explain the MSG overload. Tomatoes will be tough: spaghetti, pizza, and the sweet & sour fish I have every other Tuesday at NCC!

But peanuts! Darn it! Peanuts were behind this week's suffering! I bought a crispy peanut cake thing from an old Chinese bakery on Sunday. I had that for breakfast on Monday morning. And Wednesday morning. The symptoms started on Monday afternoon and lasted till Thursday! No wonder it seemed to get worse on Wednesday instead of better! And today? I'm fine! Wow!

An Interesting Meeting...

I have been purchasing Propofol for clinic sedation from B.Braun for years. As an Anaesthetist with Day Surgery as my subspecialty, this is undoubtedly my drug of choice for clinic cases requiring deeper levels of sedation. I've used it twice in Simply Aesthetic. Once a year ago for an APTOS demonstration and earlier this week, just to tide my patient through liposuction of the sensitive inner thigh area.

Used properly, this drug is sweet. Fast acting, short duration, rapid recovery. Misused, this turns into a beast that stops breathing, crashes the blood pressure, and can be very frightening.

I was in two minds to even bring my residual stock to the clinic, but I'm glad I did. The patient I had to use it on is even more relieved! And my hesitancy? Knowing how quickly it works and how dangerous it is when used without specific monitoring and airway support, I did not want to add risk to a procedure when I was scrubbed and unable to manage the airway if needed. We manage just fine with simpler forms of sedation during WAL. But if it is needed, I have the facility to provide oxygen if required, and I will scrub out to control the situation as necessary. I'm sure that won't be likely, as knowing the beast allows me to control the beast and tame it.

So I happen to meet Loo, the chap I've been buying the stuff from for years. He mentions that some Aesthetic doctors doing Vasers in Singapore have been buying pumps and Propofol from him. Well, it was only a matter of time. Most have had as much experience with liposuctions as with Anaesthesia (read: none), but that won't stop them. Anyway, Loo recounted stories of flow rates being moved up so slowly no effect was seen. That's just funny. Then he said one patient's BP crashed. Not so funny anymore. He's decided to stop selling pumps and Propofol to Aesthetic doctors. He wisely does not want to be around if disaster strikes.

Is sedation with Propofol such a big deal? Well, I think it is. Many Anaesthetic trainees (even senior ones) would stress at giving sedation with this drug in a clinic setting. There is a very fine line between deep sedation and general anaesthesia. Propofol is used for both. It is my drug of choice for induction of general anaesthesia. It is used alone in a technique called total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA). Difference between TIVA and deep sedation? Not much. Patients deeply sedated are effectively anaesthetised.

When I use Propofol for WAL, I stop the drug or slow it right down once I achieve my desired end point. The patient remains responsive and is able to turn from side to side as instructed.

And the really cool thing is, the sales rep for Body Jet says that other than one case under sedation, all the other water lipo cases she has attended have been done under general anaesthesia. And we have shown that that is so unnecessary. Hardly any sedation is required!

Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat (Paperback)

Authors: Roger Deutsch (Founder of the ALCAT Food Intolerance Test) and Rudy Rivera MD.

This is a book that helps you understand the process by which the body processes foods. Each person is individual. This book will help explain why you fail to lose weight despite eating healthy foods. This book is not just about dieting, but contains a wealth of information about how food sensitivities can negatively affect your whole body and your life. It explains, in easy to understand terms, the science of allergic reactions to foods, how to deal with symptoms, and best of all, it thoroughly describes a simple blood test, the ALCAT test. This test identifies your food intolerances, so that you can develop an individualized eating plan to help lose weight or feel better/get well from illnesses.

Anyone who's taken the ALCAT test will inevitably have many questions which may not be easy to explain. This book helps the average person without a medical background to understand.

We have a few copies of this book available for sale at our clinic. A browsing copy is available from our staff for clinic reference. Each book costs $38. A 20% discount is available for clients who take the ALCAT test with us.

ALCAT Food Intolerance Price Increasing 1st Jan 2008!

We've just had notification that the lab cost of ALCAT Food Intolerance Test will be increased from 1st January 2008 by at least $110! Unfortunately, this inevitably means an increase in price on our side too... Current prices will remain till end of December 2007, after which they will go up by $100. That's right, we'll be absorbing $10 of the price hike.

There's still no signs of the testing being done in Singapore any time in the near future. So the timing for collection is still very restrictive.

Please book your appointment early to have this invaluable test at current prices!