http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-boost-your-metabolism

DIY Plastic Surgery: Can You Change Your Face Without Going Under the Knife?

New devices catching on primarily among teens in Asia claim to slim noses, give instant facelifts, and improve smiles. But are these products crazy fads or just plain dangerous?

Who’s the prettiest of them all? It’s more than a folkloric contest in Asia, where inflated and omnipresent beauty standards inspire millions to go under the knife each year. Countries like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan put a social and workplace premium on appearance, causing citizens to turn to the operating table in order to achieve the slim jawline, double eyelids, and straight nose coveted by many. These three Asian nations all made it into the latest study of the top 10 most plastic-surgery dependent countries in the world. South Korea ranked first, with 16 procedures per 1,000 people, Taiwan took sixth, and Japan came in seventh. In the South Korean capital of Seoul alone, one in five women underwent cosmetic surgery in 2012. And two years earlier, it was estimated that more than 5.8 million procedures were performed across Asia.

Research showing improved economic opportunities for those deemed attractive has, in part, fueled this rise, especially within hyper-competitive markets like China. Even pre-teen children are undergoing these procedures. “I’m having her do it,” the mother of a 12-year-old Korean girl who got double-fold eye surgerytold CNN, “because I think it’ll help her. This is a society where you have to be pretty to get ahead. She’s my only daughter.”

The desire to have a specific look is not just an issue for South Korean and Japanese women. Many Asian-Americans cite pressure to conform to Western beauty standards as a reason to alter their natural appearance. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of Asian-Americans who had cosmetic procedures nearly doubled, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. In September, CBS anchor Julie Chen stirred up attention when she admitted to undergoing the double-eyelid procedure in her 20s at the behest of her boss, who thought she looked too Chinese.

But these procedures are both costly and invasive. As an alternative to plastic surgery, some people, primarily teens, are now turning to a low-tech solution: torturous-looking products that claim to mold the users’ features into the “ideal” standard of beauty.

Cosmetic surgeons worry such products can harm natural development in adolescents who are barely in their teens. Dr. Hong Jung Gon, of the Metro Plastic Surgery Clinic in Seoul, recently revealed to the GlobalPost that his clinic has occasionally treated teenagers who’ve inflicted damage on themselves by using the face-shaping gadgets, and interviews with users found they experienced bruising and pain. “We want to become pretty without spending all the money,” a 17-year-old South Korean teen told the GlobalPost. “We know that these methods aren’t approved of, but lots of our peers do it.”

”At the very best, you end up completely wasting your money. At the very worst, you can injure yourself.”

“These kinds of devices usually make claims that have no basis in studies or scientific fact,” a Long Island doctor told a beauty blog in December. ”At the very best, you end up completely wasting your money. At the very worst, you can injure yourself resulting in infections, permanent scars, or other irreversible facial deformities.”

Here is a look at a few of the more bizarre products, and the results they claim to achieve.

Face slimmer

A recently popular surgery in China and South Korea involves shaving off and realigning the jaw bone to sculpt a slimmer face shape. This clownesque mouthpiece claims to cure your saggy cheeks and tired muscles after three minutes a day of use. Just pop the silicone lips into your mouth and repeat vowel sounds, according to directions, for a “more youthful, vibrant” face. A more hi-tech version called “Facial Lift At Once” vibrates in your mouth to exercise facial muscles.

Scalp Stretcher

Instead of slicing into your skin, this ribbon clip pulls your face taut from above the ears in what it claims is an instant facelift. Hook it on every day, pull your hair over it, and the wrinkles around your cheeks and eyes are said to disappear.

Nose Lift

A buzzing maroon gadget is inserted into your nostrils and plastic legs press into the bottom, sides, and bridge of your nose. Three-minute-per-day vibrations claim to shape the nose into a straighter, higher version of the shnoz you currently have. “A nose lift without the hassle!” a description reads.

Anti-Aging Mask

This bandit-like mask straps around the eyes, head, and over the crown and applies pressure across the face to maintain a smooth, wrinkle-free appearance. Use it while “you are eating, working or sitting in the bath,” the description instructs, saying the product is designed to achieve the beauty goal of a smaller face, known as kogao in Japan. In the past decade, sales of products claiming to slim and mold the face into smaller proportions have been booming in the country.

Double-Fold Eyelids

This glasses-like contraption pledges to provide a double-fold eyelid after five minutes a day of wearing it, as an alternative to the increasingly popular 20-minute eyelid surgery. The $16 plastic frame appears to push up into the eyelid cover to separate it from the lid. As you blink, the device supposedly trains your lids into the desired look of depth. The product apparently sold thousands of units in its first month, and was expanded to 200 stores.

Nose Slimmer

In some parts of Asia, a rounded nose is considered less ideal than a straight, pointed one, and surgery-free products are flooding the market. One of these clips inside your nostrils to “push up the bones and contours of your nose,” slimming it. Some are meant to be worn as you sleep, like this seemingly suffocating clip and this metallic clamp.

Smile Trainer

A clear silicon retainer presses your lips into a perma-smile meant to form your face into a natural grin after five minutes of use a day. The product claims to improve “the angle and balance of your face and cheeks.”

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/818385?src=sttwit

Dietary Fiber Lowers Risk of CVD and CHD

Michael O’Riordan

December 27, 2013

LEEDS, UK — Aside from keeping you “regular,” eating fiber also appears to be good for your heart. A new review has shown that increased consumption of dietary fiber is associated with a significantly lower risk of CVD and CHD.

For every 7 g of dietary fiber eaten daily—which can be achieved by eating two to four servings of fruits and vegetables or a serving of whole grains plus a portion of beans or lentils—the risks of CVD and CHD were each lowered by 9%, according to a new meta-analysis published December 19, 2013 in BMJ ^[1].

“Lower risk of cardiovascular disease was also seen with greater intakes of insoluble, cereal, fruit, and vegetable fiber,” write Diane Threapleton (University of Leeds, UK), a PhD student, and colleagues. “In addition, reduced risk for CHD was associated with greater intake of insoluble fiber and fiber from cereal or vegetable food.”

A cardioprotective effect of dietary fiber was first suggested in the 1970s, and numerous studies have attempted to investigate the link, including the effects of fiber on CV risk factors.

In the present meta-analysis, Threapleton et al analyzed 22 cohort studies that reported total dietary-fiber intake, fiber subtypes, and fiber from food sources and CVD or CHD events. CVD events included CHD along with fatal and incident stroke. Five studies suggested that each 7-g/day increase in insoluble fiber lowered the risk of CVD and CHD by 18%, respectively. Fiber consumption from cereals lowered the risk of CVD and CHD, as did fiber from vegetables. Fiber sourced from fruit lowered the risk of CVD only.

Putting these results in perspective, Dr Robert Baron (University of California, San Francisco) gets straight to the point in his editorial, “Eat More Fiber”^[2]. Although the study is limited by the potential for confounding—there is the possibility of an association between high fiber intake and other healthy behaviors—”clinicians should enthusiastically and skilfully recommend that patients consume more dietary fiber,” writes Baron. This includes a mix of soluble and insoluble fiber and fiber from multiple food sources, he adds.

Although the evidence for recommending higher fiber intake comes from “imperfect evidence,” including observational studies and expert opinion, the updated meta-analysis by Threapleton et al increases confidence in the recommendation, writes Baron.

In November 2013, astronomers made a startling announcement: The Milky Way galaxy hosts at least 8.8 billion stars with planets the size of Earth. Those planets, the researchers said after studying NASA’s Kepler data, revolve around their suns in a so-calledGoldilocks zone. That zone is where life, as we know it, can exist.

“Just in our Milky Way galaxy alone, that’s 8.8 billion throws of the biological dice,” said Geoff Marcy, one of the study’s authors [source: Borenstein].

The Kepler telescope, which experienced technical problems in summer 2013, was gazing at a thin slice of the Milky Way to see how many Earth-like planets might be out there. The astronomers then did some math homework and extrapolated that figure to the rest of the galaxy. The next step is to see if these Earth-like planets have atmospheres. The right kind of atmosphere is a good indication that life might exist on the planet’s surface [source: Borenstein].

That finding is just one of many scientific discoveries that made headlines in 2013. Wait until you hear the other 10.

After announcing the discovery of King Richard III’s remains in September 2012, archaeologists were able to confirm in 2013 that they had indeed unearthed the old boy.

10: King Richard III Confirmed

“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

That’s our favorite tyrant in Act V, Scene IV of Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of King Richard the Third.” He’s on the battlefield about to take a tumble. He’s in power, but alone.

The end came soon enough for Richard, the reviled (and occasionally revered) English monarch, on Aug. 22, 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth. After the battle, a group of friars buried Richard, naked, and with no marker or any other identifying papers. They jammed his skull into the grave so hard that it sat crooked against the wall of the shallow grave some 20 miles (32 kilometers) or so from the battlefield. Later on, someone built a parking lot over the king [source:Burns].

Thanks to the skeletal evidence, radiocarbon datingand a mitochondrial DNA match, archaeologists concluded in February 2013 that the remains unearthed in the parking lot a year before were those of Richard. Later, the researchers from England’s University of Leicester even were able to discern that the king had a bad case of roundworm. The king was 32 when he died at Bosworth, the last battle of the War of the Roses, which ended with Henry the VII taking the throne [source: Ford and Smith Park].

Like that, except the one developed in 2013 by Harvard University scientists can perch on the head of pin.

9: Minuscule Lithium-ion Battery

In June, Harvard University scientists announced the creation of a seriously tiny lithium-ion battery that could one day power Lilliputian robots or mini medical devices. Created with a 3-D printer, the battery is so small that it can rest on the head of a pin.

Three-dimensional printers, headline makers in their own right in 2013, make objects by piling layer upon layer of material on top of each other. Most 3-D printers manipulate plastic, but the one that fashioned the midget battery relied on a new type of material crammed with lithium-metal-oxide particles.

The petite power source is less than a millimeter in size. It weighs less than 100 micrograms but is able to store as much energy per gram as the larger lithium-ion batteries that power items such as laptops and electric cars [source: Powell].

Was this the year of the bionic eye? Several major developments occurred in the so-called cochlear implant for the vision impaired.

William West/AFP/Getty Images

8: Bionic Eye

Meanwhile, over in Australia, a bunch of engineers and designers unveiled one of the world’s first bionic eyes in June. Using a microchip embedded in the skull and a digital camera set on a pair of glasses, the bionic eye has the potential to help 85 percent of people who are legally blind see the outlines of their surroundings [source: Hall].

Here’s how this bionic eye works: Mounted on thesnazzy glasses is a camera similar to the one on aniPhone. The camera captures an image, and a sensor inside the glasses directs the camera’s field of vision as a person turns his or her head. A digital processor modifies the captured images and then sends the signal wirelessly to the chip implanted at the back of the brain. The chip sends electrical signals through tiny electrodes that stimulate the brain’s visual center. Over time, the brain interprets these signals as images [source: Hall].

These funny-looking eusocial rodents could wind up teaching humans a lot about cancer.

7: Cancer-free Naked Mole Rats

Small and hairless, naked mole rats are so ugly that they’re cute. Unlike many rodents though, these subterranean creatures have unusually long lives (30 years!) and don’t get cancer. In June, researchers at the University of Rochester announced why that is. They said naked mole rats have a natural substance in between their tissues that keeps cancerous tumors away. This substance, known as hyaluronan, may one day lead to cancer treatments in humans.

How did researchers find this out? When they removed the hyaluronan from the tissue of the mole rats, the rats began to grow tumors. Apparently, the naked mole rats have a lot of hyaluronan that keeps tissues flexible, which is essential for burrowing and making sure their skin remains unscathed. Humans produce hyaluronan, too, but in much smaller quantities [source: Chow].

Artist’s concept of the wondrous and wide-ranging Voyager spacecraft in flight

Image courtesy NASA/JPL

6: Voyager I Makes It to Interstellar Space

It’s going, going, gone.

NASA hit the longest home run of its career when Voyager 1, like the Pioneers 10 and 11 spacecraft, said sayonara to the planets of our solar system and the sun‘s gravitational influence. Voyager 1 is now streaking through interstellar space sending information back to Earth. Although the craft said bon voyage in August 2012, it wasn’t until September 2013 that scientists were sure it actually happened.

It was a remarkable event more than 36 years in the making. Voyager 1 left Earth in 1977 for Jupiter and Saturn and scampered past the so-calledheliosphere, the boundary of the solar system where the sun’s gravity has little effect. When scientists made the shocking announcement, the craft was 11.7 billion miles (18.8 billion kilometers) from Earth. Voyager 2 also is headed for interstellar space.

Peter Higgs, the British scientist responsible for starting all of this (Higgs) boson business, poses in front of a photo of the Atlas detector in London on Nov. 12, 2013.

5: Higgs Boson Confirmed

Every so often, there’s a moment in science where everyone stands and cheers. That happened in March when scientists confirmed after decades of research (and some pretty promising July 2012 results) that they had found the Higgs boson. In 1964, a British physicist named Peter Higgs theorized that the tantalizingly elusive subatomic particle was the reason why matter has mass. Scientists working at animmense particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland, announced the discovery.

What does the Higgs boson supposedly do? People have used many metaphors to describe how it works. Some say it acts like molasses, dragging on particles as they move through it. Others compare it to a field of snow. Let’s use that metaphor.

Some particles, like electrons, have little mass, while others have more mass. As these particles move through the universe, they interact with a Higgs field full of Higgs bosons, just like a person who moves through a snowy field. Electrons are like downhill skiers. They glide swiftly over the snow. Other particles that have more mass plod through the field like a person schlepping through snow in heavy boots. Still, other particles have no mass, so they don’t interact with Higgs bosons at all. The discovery will help scientists explain how our universe works [source: Holmes].

Curiosity has had a busy couple of months on Mars drilling into rocks and discovering some of the key building blocks for life.

Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

4: Mars and Microbes

Seven months after a NASA rover landed on Mars, scientists announced in March that the rover,Curiosity, found evidence the red planet could have been home to living microbes.

Here’s how that happened: On Feb. 8, Curiosity drilled into a rock and found some of the key ingredients for life, including sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen. The rock was sitting in a part of Mars called Yellowknife Bay, which scientists say, was at the end of an ancient river system or lake bed. The rock contained minerals usually found in clay [sources: Wall, NASA].

Scientists just can’t leave the idea of the invisibility cloak alone, and 2013 saw a few new advancements on the cloak that Harry Potter made famous.

buchachon/iStock/Thinkstock

3: Invisibility Cloak

When Harry Potter didn’t want anyone to see him, all he had to do was pull on a magical cloak and — poof! — he was invisible. Although invisibility cloaks, which work by bending light around an object have been around since 2006, scientists said in June that they made a major breakthrough by building a broadband device that can hide objects at a wide range of light frequencies [source: MIT]. Of course, there was just one teeny drawback: The device made other parts of the object more noticeable.

Here’s how: While a person might not be able to see an object at one point in the light spectrum, it makes another part of the object more visible. For example, the cloak might make an object invisible in the red light spectrum, but if it was illuminated by white light, which contains all colors, that object would become bright blue and stand out like a sore thumb. In other words, it’s impossible to become fully invisible. The device could be used in biomedicine and in the military [source: Pocklington].

He may have been gone more for than 40 years, but he’s certainly not forgotten, as Barbaturex morrisoni attests.

2: Jim Morrison, the Lizard King

Jim Morrison, the inspiration behind the storied ’70s rock band The Doors, might be dead (is he?), but he still lives on, and not just in his music. In June, scientists named a new species of lizard for the self-proclaimed, hard-rocking “Lizard King.”

Barbaturex morrisoni was a rather large, plant-eating reptile that roamed the planet some 36-40 million years ago. B. morrisoni was as large a Dalmatian [source: Huffington Post]. The king of the lizards lived during a period in Earth’s history when temperatures were skyrocketing, and, indeed, scientists think the warm temps contributed to B. morrisoni‘s unusual success as a big, herbivorous lizard.

A “Divest from climate change” banner is dropped over the Charles River by Boston students who aim to stop climate change by having their schools divest from the fossil fuel industry. Around 150 students from Boston area colleges and universities rallied on Dec. 8, 2013.

1: Climate Change Getting Worse

Speaking of rising temps, climate change is worsening, and according to a 2013 draft report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it will have “widespread and consequential” impacts for the entire planet. According to the report, climate change will make human health problems worse in many regions. Temperature increases will affect food crops such as wheat, rice and maize in tropical and temperate regions.

The report also predicts dire political consequences, such as civil war, as climate change diminishes food production, increases poverty and wreaks havoc with the economies of many nations. Moreover, by 2100, sea levels will rise, displacing hundreds of millions of people, particularly for multiple areas of Asia [source:Guillen].

Fifty years ago, ashtrays seemed to be on every table and desk. Athletes and even Fred Flintstone endorsed cigarettes in TV commercials. Smoke hung in the air in restaurants, offices and airplane cabins. More than 42 percent of U.S. adults smoked, and there was a good chance your doctor was among them.

The turning point came on Jan. 11, 1964. It was on that Saturday morning that U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released an emphatic and authoritative report that said smoking causes illness and death — and the government should do something about it.

In the decades that followed, warning labels were put on cigarette packs, cigarette commercials were banned, taxes were raised and new restrictions were placed on where people could light up. (AP)

By Sean Williams | More Articles | Save For Later

It’s truly amazing how well humans have evolved given how short of a timespan they’ve been on this planet.

According to the World Health Organization, there are 12,420 disorders, diseases, and health-related ailments that could potentially strike us each and every day. Yet somehow we not only survive, we’re managing to thrive, as life expectancy rates around the world continue to rise. The Global Burden of Disease Study conducted in 2010 showed that the number of deaths over age 70 had risen to 43% worldwide, from 33% just 20 years prior.

Source: Josie Kemp, Wikimedia Commons.

This increase in life expectancy can be attributed to increasing awareness of serious diseases, improved pharmacological vaccination rates, and lower worldwide poverty rates that have resulted in better eating habits.

What’s still scary, though, is that there are a number of disorders and diseases — some very serious, and some not as immediately serious — that are carried, unknowingly, by people for weeks, months, and in some cases years. Getting these diseases under control and improving awareness of the unknowing carriers of these disease could help improve a quality of life, and has the potential, over time, to make a meaningful impact on worldwide life expectancy.

Let’s have a look at five common diseases that I’ve taken note of in my years of writing about the health-care sector that often go undetected by people, as well as glance at a few therapies and devices that could benefit if awareness of these diseases improved.

Diabetes
Although diabetes is a global problem, it’s particularly prevalent in the United States, due to the fact that nearly 34% of the U.S. population is considered obese, and diabetes often goes hand in hand with obesity.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are currently 25.6 million people in the U.S. with diabetes, 7 million of whom are currently undiagnosed. To add insult to injury, the CDC also notes that there are an additional 79 million adults in this country showing signs of pre-diabetes, a condition that could lead to full-blown diabetes later on in life.

Diabetes is certainly a manageable disease if caught early and treated regularly, which is why the Obamacare health reforms may wind up being crucial to getting people in to see their physician for preventative visits. Were this to happen, I could see a bright future in the cards for Johnson & Johnson‘s (NYSE: JNJ ) Invokana. Invokana is the first SGLT2 inhibitor approved in the U.S. It works by blocking glucose absorption in the kidneys for type 2 diabetes patients (type 2 accounts for 90% of all diabetes cases). As an added bonus, one of Invokana’s side effects is modest weight-loss, which is perfect since most diabetes cases lead to a patient being overweight or obese.

Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, one of the most common infectious diseases — and one that is both curable and preventable — is found in its latent form in about 2 billion people worldwide based on statistics from the World Health Organization. Before you start freaking out, understand that only 5% to 10% of those latent virus carriers will have the potential to develop the active form of the disease at some point in their lives. However, understand that next to AIDS, tuberculosis is the next-greatest single-agent killer in the world. It’s an especially virulent disease in lower-to-middle-income countries where 95% of all TB deaths occur.

Not to beat the drum on Johnson & Johnson, but it also had Sirturo, a multidrug-resistant TB medication, approved by the FDA in late 2012. This was the first TB medication approved in 40 years, and it targets the most difficult to treat form of the disease. Peak sales of Sirturo are estimated as high as $400 million.

Hepatitis C
Based on data from the CDC, there about 3.2 million people infected with hepatitis C, a liver disease, in the United States — and as many as 75% of those people have no clue they carry the disease. Over time, hepatitis C can lead to liver cirrhosis and even liver cancer. WHO statistics peg the number of worldwide cases at approximately 180 million, meaning, if the CDC’s estimates are extrapolated, some 135 million people around the world are clueless that they have this disease.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I believe this could be a shining moment for a medical device maker like OraSure Technologies (NASDAQ: OSUR ) , which makes a point-of-care test for hepatitis-C, the OraQuick HCV Rapid Antibody Test. In New York, for example, a law was recently passedrequiring health-care service providers to supply one free test for hepatitis-C to baby boomers born between 1945 and 1965. With improved testing and awareness, improved treatment results should follow.

COPD
COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is responsible for about 120,000 deaths in the U.S. every year, and is characterized by blockage and inflammation of the tubes of the lungs, making it difficult for a patient to breathe. Smoking is, without question, the predominant factor that often leads to COPD.

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a subsidiary of the National Institutes of Health, there are more than 12 million people in this country diagnosed with COPD and an additional 12 million who are undiagnosed and likely to have this disease.

Obviously, preventative care and increased awareness are the first steps to catching COPD early, but unfortunately there is no cure. However, over the past year we have witnessed the FDA approval of two new long-term COPD treatments from the likes of GlaxoSmithKline(NYSE: GSK ) and Theravance (NASDAQ: THRX ) . Breo Ellipta was approved in May to reduce COPD exacerbations and reduce airflow obstruction, while Anoro Ellipta was approved just last month as a once-daily treatment for airflow obstruction. Together, each therapy is expected to generate in excess of $1 billion in peak sales.

Heart failure
Not to be confused with a sudden heart attack, heart failure is a progressive condition that comes about as a result of a heart attack, chronic high blood pressure, or even diabetes, which affects the ability of the heart to pump blood throughout the body.

Based on statistics from the Heart Failure Society of America, heart failure affects nearly 5 million people in the United States, is the only cardiovascular disease that’s still on the rise, and is widely unnoticed by a number of patients. Part of this has to do with minimal research funding and an incomplete understanding of what occurs in heart muscles that causes them to weaken over time. In fact, the HFSA notes that the number of annual diagnoses has more than doubled since 1979.

While improved preventative care, especially for patients with a history of cardiovascular problems in their family, could stem this rise, pharmacological solutions like Novartis‘ (NYSE:NVS ) breakthrough therapy-designated experimental drug RLX030, known as serelaxin, could be the ultimate solution. In clinical trials, serelaxin reduced death rates by 37% in patients with acute heart failure six months after treatment. Because of its breakthrough designation, it could reach pharmacy shelves more quickly than your typical drug and make a huge impact on improving patient quality of life and life expectancy.

By SALLY WADYKA

When Eva Campbell-Morales was in her early 40s, she noticed that her face, which was naturally thin, was suddenly starting to look gaunt and old. “Being thin meant I looked great in my jeans, but my face looked like the crypt keeper,” said Ms. Campbell-Morales, 51, an actress and Spanish translator. She saw several doctors in pursuit of a traditional face-lift, but no one would agree that was what she needed. Finally, she saw Dr. Nathan Newman, a Beverly Hills, Calif., dermatologist, who persuaded her to try a newer procedure called a “stem-cell face-lift.”

“The results were phenomenal,” Ms. Campbell-Morales said, who later posted a video on YouTube about the experience. “Afterward, my face had more structure and all of the hollow areas were filled in.”

The term “stem-cell face-lift” is something of a misnomer. A conventional face-lift requires surgically cutting, lifting and sewing sagging skin, while this procedure is typically nonsurgical, involving fat injections designed to plump up the skin and restore the face’s youthful volume.

The stem-cell face-lift starts with liposuction to harvest fat from a place that has extra (like the stomach or thighs) that can later be injected into a place that doesn’t have enough (like the hollows of the cheeks or around the eyes).

So where, exactly, do the stem cells come into play? That is the million-dollar question. Or more accurately, the $5,000 to $10,000 question, since that’s about how much people are paying for the procedure. And the answer very much depends on whom you ask.

“I’m convinced that 90 percent of the doctors promising this are just taking the fat, spinning it in a centrifuge a bit and injecting it into the face,” said Dr. Karol Gutowski, a plastic surgeon in Northbrook, Ill. “They’re essentially doing fat grafting, which has been around decades, and any stem cells that happen to be in that fat are just coming along for the ride.”

Proponents of stem-cell face-lifts, not surprisingly, have a very different take. Dr. Newman, who performed the procedure on Ms. Campbell-Morales, said he has been working on his stem-cell procedure for more than a decade, using what he described as a mechanical process that breaks up collagen and allows the stem cells to be separated out. He is convinced that adding extra stem cells to the injected fat is the ticket to better skin. “The youthful glow comes back to skin because of growth factors that are produced from the stem cells,” he said. And that, in his opinion, doesn’t happen by injecting fat alone.

Stem cells are found in many different tissues throughout the body. They are often referred to as “undifferentiated cells.” That means they are essentially biological blank slates that are capable of becoming another differentiated type of cell — like a skin cell, a fat cell or a muscle cell.

Researchers have been exploring the regenerative properties of adult stem cells (and the more controversial embryonic stem cells) for decades, experimenting with their potential to generate tissue that could help heal conditions from heart disease to spinal cord injury. For the increasingly popular aesthetic procedures like the stem-cell face-lift, the source of these stem cells is normally adipose (fat) tissue.

For critics of the stem-cell face-lift, the main problem isn’t necessarily the use of stem cells, but that claims like Dr. Newman’s are backed up mostly by anecdotal evidence. “You won’t find a bigger proponent of stem-cell technology than me,” said Dr. Peter Rubin, a director of the Adipose Stem Cell Center at the University of Pittsburgh. “But I’m also a fan of something called evidence-based medicine. If doctors are making claims of better outcomes, we need hard data that supports that.”

In pursuit of that hard data, Dr. Rubin was a chairman of a joint task force with Dr. Gutowski to look into the scientific evidence assessing both the safety and efficacy of stem-cell use in aesthetic procedures.

And in May 2011, the task force (a collaboration between the American Society for Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery) issued a position statement on the topic. After going through thousands of peer-reviewed articles published in medical journals on the use of stem cells in aesthetic procedures, they found only about a dozen that provided any “real clinical data on aesthetic use,” Dr. Rubin said. “Very little of this research has been done in randomized controlled settings.”

That would involve doing experiments like treating one-half of the face with traditional fat injections and the other with stem-cell-enriched fat — and having ways to measure any qualitative skin changes accurately (as opposed to relying on before-and-after photos or patient feedback).

“We need studies that look at exactly how the skin tissue responds and whether more volume is retained if you use more stem cells,” Dr. Gutowski said. “We’re not seeing that research yet.”

For now, the task force is urging caution on all aesthetic stem-cell procedures, and a hearty dose of “let the buyer beware.” The report states “the marketing and promotion of stem cell procedures in aesthetic surgery is not adequately supported clinical by evidence at this time.”

But that is not to say that there isn’t potential here. “Stem cells in fat are very powerful releasers of growth factors that enhance tissue healing and can induce the growth of new blood vessels in the tissue,” Dr. Rubin said. His lab is in the midst of a clinical trial, financed by the National Institutes of Health, on the use of stem-cell-enhanced fat grafting versus nonenhanced fat grafting for treating facial deformities on wounded soldiers. When the trial is complete, the results will help either bolster or diminish the case for procedures like the stem-cell face-lift.

Google the term “stem-cell face-lift” and you’ll get dozens of pages of results — including several for doctors advertising their version of the procedure. For many surgeons, that sort of self-promotion is a giant red flag. Regardless of the future potential for these procedures, Dr. Gutowski takes issue with anyone trying to trademark their technique. “That’s a pure marketing gimmick,” he said. “That’s not medicine.”

Plastic Surgery as Economic Indicator

By Brad Tuttle @bradrtuttleFeb. 14, 2012Add a Comment

Most plastic surgery procedures are considered non-essential, or elective—as in, the patient can elect to have work done, just don’t expect health insurance to cover it. Or as in: When the economy’s shaky and money is tight, it makes sense that fewer people elect to spend out of pocket for boob jobs, facelifts, and the like, mostly because they don’t have the money to spend. The fact that elective cosmetic procedures rose by 5% last year could be viewed as an indication that the economy is recovering.

If you look hard enough at the data, you can find manifestations of the economy’s wellbeing just about anywhere. How often parents change kids’ diapers, and sales of everything from men’s underwear to hard liquor have been construed as indicators of the state of the economy.

(MORE: Cheers! Increase in Liquor Sales Bodes Well for Economic Recovery)

During the heart of the recession, one sign of the times was that people were scaling back by opting for cheaper cosmetic surgeries instead of pricier procedures. Last year, reports USA Today, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) statistics reveal that there was a 5% increase in overall cosmetic procedures, including a 2% rise in surgeries and a 6% rise in minimally-invasive procedures such as Botox, compared to 2010.

The ASPS’s press release welcomed the news, but at the same time the organization’s president, Dr. Malcolm Z. Roth, admitted that “the overall growth in cosmetic procedures is being primarily driven by a substantial rise in minimally-invasive procedures.”

The way in which cosmetic procedures are rising, then, may be an indication of continued economic struggle, with consumers electing to go with cheaper procedures (chemical peels, Botox, laser hair removal) partly because they don’t have the money for invasive, big-ticket surgeries like rhinoplasty, a.k.a., nose jobs, which were actually down 3% last year.

For that matter, none of the five most popular cosmetic surgeries for 2011 (breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, facelift, liposuction, nose reshaping) grew significantly for the year, experiencing increases in numbers of 5% or less. And in two cases (nose reshaping, eyelid surgery), there were more surgeries in 2010 than there were last year.

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The growth areas for plastic surgery, if you will, are for pectoral implants, buttock implants, buttock lifts, cheek implants, lip augmentation, and chin augmentation. All of these surgeries experienced an increase of 38% or more in 2011.

Overall, though, the plastic surgery business is down quite a bit compared its booming, pre-recession heyday. In 2005, an all-time record of 2.1 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in the U.S. Last year, there were about 1.58 million such surgeries, a rise of 2% from the year before—but down by about half a million from six years prior.

I guess that’s one way we’ll all be able to tell when the economy is faring better: We’ll be able to see it directly on the non-expressive faces of people all around us.

Brad Tuttle is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @bradrtuttle. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

By Brad Tuttle @bradrtuttleDec. 30, 2013Add a Comment

It’s well known that gym membership signups spike on January 1. But there are other ways to kick off the new year with a new look. Cosmetic procedures soar at this time of year, and the “gifting” of plastic surgery is reportedly a rising holiday season trend.

Leading into the holiday season, it looked like plastic surgery was shaping up as a hot gift item. According to plastic surgeons cited in an ABC News report, the gifting ofcosmetic surgery is up 20% to 35%, depending on the procedure and practice. Likewise, an Elle.com post called on plastic surgeons reporting that sales of gift cards—often for $150 to $200, which cover low-cost procedures like medical-grade peels—have undergone a “dramatic increase.”

There’s a rise in pricier gift surgeries as well, with family and friends paying for the nose jobs, breast augmentation, or Botox treatments of loved ones. “I’ve really seen it all with holiday gifting. I’ve seen mothers get daughters laser hair removal,” Dr. Elizabeth Hale, a Manhattan-based dermatologist told Elle. “I’ve seen sisters give sisters treatments, usually an injectable.”

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In the Las Vegas area, quick plastic surgery procedures spike before Christmas arrives. Treatments and surgeries are often up 20% to 30% in December, typically with patients who want to look their best for holiday parties and/or the start of the new year. Per the According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

“People find themselves with a little more time off for recovery from surgical procedures,” said Dr. Terry Higgins, a partner in Anson and Higgins. “It’s also party season, when everyone’s out and about and being seen more than normal. Or people may be seeing relatives they haven’t seen for a while. They want to look their best, so they get noninvasive quick fixes that can help them look good rapidly.”

The plastic-surgery-around-the-holidays trend has been noted in the past. A year ago, the South Florida SunSentinel reported on the rise of stockings stuffed with cosmetic surgery gift cards. One woman, who happens to be a psychotherapist in Fort Lauderdale, gave her husband “a wrapped box under their tree with a $500 gift certificate for botox injections and laser hair removal.”

“It’s a nice gift, one piece of paper, one little bow, one little box, and that’s it, you’re done, and the person is very happy,” she said. “And there’s a benefit — you don’t have to look at their wrinkled, shriveled face.”

The reasons that the holiday period is peak season for plastic surgery are fairly obvious, according to a 2011 Wall Street Journal story:

After many cosmetic procedures patients want to go underground during the days-long recovery period, which might involve swelling, bruising and oozing. The holiday season makes it easier to avoid interacting with others at work or in school car pools.

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For the skeptics out there, what’s interesting about all of these trend pieces is that the data typically originates with plastic surgeons (who obviously have self-interest in promoting cosmetic surgery and holiday surgery gifting as trends), and that most of the surgeons and patients cited are located in big cities like New York and Chicago (so, presumably, the idea quite as hot in small-town America).

In any event, there are still some limits to what’s considered acceptable. Among the non-Botoxed who can still manage to make facial expressions, few raise their eyebrows in shock when word spreads about reality TV stars buying each other boob jobs for Christmas. But reports of an increase in plastic surgery among young people (under 20) in Germany caused one local politician to voice the concerns shared by many. “I think it is completely unacceptable to give a 15-year-old a breast enlargement as a Christmas present,” he said.

Scientists have developed a breakthrough technique to grow artificial skin – using stem cells taken from the umbilical cord. The new method means major burn patients could benefit from faster skin grafting, the researchers say, as the artificial skin can be stored and used when needed.

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269313.php

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