DR 212 RENEW NEWS-BLOG

DR 212 Renew is off to Monte Carlo!! By dr212renew | March 8, 2009 Wishing you were here! I am so excited to be going to Monte Carlo next week to lecture at the 2009 World Congress in Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medicine!  This meeting is the best!  It is the largest international meeting of physicians and anti-aging practioners in the world.  As many of you know, I attended the meeting last year in Paris.  Now, we are off to sunny St. Tropez [with our sunscreen!] to get a sneak-peak at the latest and greatest advances in all of the lasers and lights and machines that go “bing!”  This meeting is attended by over 5,000 physicians from around the globe, and I will be lecturing on two different occasions.  On Friday evening, I will be conducting an hour long workshop teaching the physicians how to use the newest Thermage 16.0 body tip that I have exclusive rights to use in my New York office.  This tip is 5 times as large, cuts the treatment time in half, and doubles the results [check out the videotape of me having the procedure performed on myself after you finish reading this, just go to the sidebar & click on my YouTube channel-DR212Renew- don’t forget to subscribe]! On Saturday, I will be giving a podium lecture on the newest advances in body tightening techniques.  I really look forward to making more new friends, sharing techniques with other physicians, and showing them a thing or too as well.  As always, I will be keeping an eye out for things to bring back to New York City because only the best will do for you, my pretties!! See you when I return! Luv n’ Hugs, Dr. Lisa

News from the Wierd- Cryotherapy By dr212renew | February 23, 2009 Me, emerging from the cryo chamber! Imagine stepping into a giant, wood-paneled freezer chilled to -275 degrees Fahrenheit, colder than your kitchen freezer (0 degrees F); colder than the top of Mount Everest (-76 degrees F), colder even than the lowest temperature ever found in nature on the ice fields of Antarctica (-129 degrees F) and staying in there for up to three minutes being chilled by liquid nitrogen, oh, did I forget to mention that the only thing that you will be wearing is a frostbite-protecting headband over your ears, gloves, knee socks, and a pair of clogs…would you do it?  Well, whole-body cryotherapy is the latest insider health-fitness-and-beauty craze to bubble up from Eastern Europe.  The cold-shock method was devised for medicinal purposes, but the benefits are now attracting the superhealthy sports elite who are harnessing it as a treatment for injuries as well as a performance enhancer (last year, German researchers tracked 50 Beijing-bound Olympians who underwent regular whole-body cryo treatments and found significant overall improvements). The beauty by-product is the promise of rejuvenated skin and diminished cellulite.  The theory is that when the body is subjected to extreme drops in temperature, the brain is prompted to withdraw blood from the skin surface back into the body’s core, thus stimulating the nervous system to release hormones, including adrenaline, endorphins, serotonin, and testosterone.  Once the chill is over, blood is pumped vigorously back around the body, increasing the supply of nutrients and oxygen, a response that lasts up to two hours.  The attraction is the flood of endorphins.  People who have tried cryotherapy state that “my skin looks better.  My hair’s stopped falling out.” The hormone system is being stimulated.  Exposure to extreme cold has also been shown to stimulate the body into burning fat deposits.  As you leave the cryochamber, a sensation of internal cheerfulness rises through the body, like a runner’s high.  And the giddy underglow of freshness remains in the skin for up to 3 days, the face really does look fresher.  People can build up to going into the chamber three times a day (at $60 per session). But does cryotherapy do anything measureable to the body?  Western science is still giving the cold-shoulder to cryotherapy and it has been met with a chilly response by hard-core academic medicine as well.  Currently, Cryo is in the same position that acupuncture was years ago.  So, should you try cryotherapy?  If you have the means, and if it feels good, do it! Have a Beautiful Day! Dr. Lisa

Tap into Your Own Fountain of Youth with Adult Stem Cell Therapy By dr212renew | February 23, 2009 Super High Tech Animation of Stem Cell Therapy! Wait!  Hold on, I know what you are thinking, “I would never consider using stem cells, SHHHHH!  That’s sooo controversial, you should never talk about politics, religion, or, well, I forget the other thing that you are not supposed to talk about in polite company, but I’m sure that stem cell research is on that list.” Hear me out for a second.  Remember that I am a molecular geneticist by training.  Before I went to medical school, I was slicing, dicing, and julienne frying the genome for the sake of creating vaccines for the betterment of my fellow humankind (some of my research contributed to the creation of the Gardasil vaccine for cervical cancer).  However, one college degree didn’t seem to be enough of a challenge for my brain cells, so I ordered a double and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BS in molecular genetics, and a BA in comparative religion and a minor in medical ethics (so there)!  That being said, I want you to please lend me your ears [or in this case, your eyes since you’re reading this, [ I’m also an eye surgeon, so you can trust me with them as well] while I tell you a little bit about  adult stem cell therapy and how everyone can benefit from it. First of all, what is a stem cell?  Well, before we are born, the growing embryo (early fetus) is filled with cells that are living the “American Dream” they can grow up to be anything!  Once the sperm fert ilizes the egg, an overwhelming cascade of molecular events orchestrates this one cell to become a walking, talking, drooling bundle of joy in about 9 months.  How can this happen?  Well, each cell in a developing fetus starts out as an unemployed college freshman.  It hasn’t been told what to think, it doesn’t have any skills, it just walks around campus, looking at bulletin boards until it stumbles across an interesting environment, then it hangs around and gets indoctrinated into a major course of study and before you know it, graduates with a degree—“ Congratulations!  You’re a heart cell!”  ”Great work, you’re a skin cell!”  “Why couldn’t you be more like your cousin Lenny, HE’s a brain cell!”  In other words, each of the stem cells has the POTENTIAL to become anything, it just depends upon the crowd that it’s hanging around with, and the molecular markers that are turned off and on at any given time during development.  However, once a cell does specialize in a particular function, it usually can’t be converted into a different type of cell, it’s stuck in a routine [beat the heart, beat the heart, beat the heart…every day it’s the same thing].   It gets to be kind of old really fast –exactly!  No cell lives forever, they eventually are put out for retirement only to be replaced by a new up-and-comer.  Only, some cells, like nerve cells, when they die, they can’t be revived and brought back to life.  They are so super specialized that they only get one shot in this lifetime.  This is why we can’t cure the blind, or help people with spinal cord injuries to walk again, or to reverse the brain damage from head injuries or stroke victims.  Gone forever.   In medicine we have a saying “time is tissue” and in the event of a stroke or heart attack, we only have a certain timeframe (usually less than 90 minutes) to try to save those dying cells. Okay, enough doom and gloom.  How would you feel if I told you that there is a medical treatment that could limit, or even potentially reverse the damage that unfortunately happened, and that it wasn’t a drug, that it came from your very own blood… wouldn’t you want it?!  This treatment does exist, and it is called “Adult Stem Cell Therapy” and I can get you started on the path to insuring your own personal health today, right this minute.  Give me 4 hours of your time, and for the next 20 years you can be safely reassured that if you are faced with a [God Forbid] catastrophic event such as a spinal cord injury, heart attack, or cancer, that your own stem cells are banked and available to you in your time of need.  Here is how it works: I am a certified medical provider for a company called NeoStem [www.neostem.com].   If you would like to collect your own stem cells, you come to my office and I do a standard history and physical exam and then I provide you with the paperwork to have a small sample of your blood drawn right around the corner from my office in Manhattan.  This small blood sample is to make sure that you are healthy enough to donate blood, and that your blood meets the same standards required of a volunteer blood donor.  Once the laboratory tells me that everything is okay and that you are healthy enough to undergo the stem cell isolation process, I will write you a prescription for a medication called Neupogen {New-Pa-What?].   Don’t be frightened, we have been using Neupogen for years to help people with low white blood cell counts boost their immunity.  Essentially, Neupogen invites the STEM CELLS IN YOUR BONE MARROW  to come on out into your bloodstream and join the party!    You need two little shots of Neupogen (though a teeny-tiny thin needle, Neupogen is administered the same way as insulin).  Ever hear the phrase “Timing is of the essence?”  Well, the way that this proceeds is that you need to take the Neupogen shot once a day for two days in a row, and THEN you can pass go and gather up your stem cells while you may! Once you’ve done the Neupogen twice as directed, then you can go to one of several NeoStem facilities in the country (there is one right around the corner from my office in Manhattan).  Plan to spend about 3 hours there watching a movie or otherwise entertaining yourself as your newly minted stem cells are isolated from your blood through a simple IV process called “plasmapheresis.”  Plasmapheresis simply means having the blood drawn from one arm to be run through a fancy machine that picks out only the stem cells and then gives you back your blood through another IV line [okay, there is no tap-dancing around this, there will be an IV in each arm, one arm going out, another arm going in, but like I said, give me 3 hours of your time, and I’ll give you 20 years of stem cells- aren’t you worth it?]. You only have to collect your cells once at the facility (although you can chose to do so more than once, I’ll tell you about that in a bit…].   Once your stem cells have been collected, that’s it,  NeoStem takes it from there.   The amount of blood that you donate is approximately less than ½ of a cup!  From this ½ cup of blood some will be stored under a certain process in case you were to need it immediately in the [God Fobid] event of chemotherapy.  The rest of the stem cells are cryogenically stored for use in the distant future.  The stem cells have been shown to maintain their functioning for up to 20 years.  The NeoStem storage facility is currently located in Los Angeles, California. What are some medical circumstances where having access to your own stem cells might be beneficial to your final outcome?  Well, the list grows every day but includes:  Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, Autoimmune Disease, Bone Repair, Cartilage Repair, Congestive Heart Failure, Crohn’s Disease, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Leukemia, Liver Disease, Lupus, Lymphoma, Multiple Myeloma, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Nerve Degeneration, Parkinson’s Disease, Radiation Sickness, Spinal Cord Injury, and Stroke. So, why did I get involved with stem cell therapy…for beauty’s sake of course!!   Aside from being selfish and wanting to help myself and others to store their own stem cells for their future health, we are behind the times when it comes to using this therapy for anti-aging purposes!  I have several patients who travel internationally and they have received embryonic stem cells from sheep in Germany, France, and Russia for anti-aging purposes!  Think about it, aging is caused by inflammation.  The stem cells go to areas in the body where inflammation is present and miraculously transform themselves into the tissue type that has been injured.  These are “shovel-ready” cells that are able and willing to perform any job required, all the body need s to do is ask them.  Imagine aging backwards, what a curious case!  You can do stem-cell therapy if you injure your knee running on the treadmill, or simply because you just want to look younger with improved vitality. Okay doc, it all sounds too good to be true, what’s the catch?  Here it is.  Donating and storing your own stem cells is as easy as 1-2-3 here in the United States, but getting them transfused when you want them involves a little hop and skip across the border because the therapy is not yet FDA approved in this country [and likely, will not be for the next 18 months of so thanks to a little thing known as big government].  Does that mean that stem cell therapy is unsafe?  Absolutely not, it means that the FDA is arcane.  The FDA was put into existence to monitor the quality of drugs and machines that are used for medical purposes in this country.  The FDA is not allowed to tell doctors how they practice medicine or use those approved drugs and devices.   This is because each patient is different and when the FDA was formed, they were intentionally limited in their scope of regulating medicine so as to preserve the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship.  Usually, a drug or medical device is approved for one purpose, but if the physician finds that it will be helpful for treating another condition, it is legal for the doctor to do so [this is called “off-label use”].  For instance, the FDA approved the drug “Zyban” as a stop-smoking aid, although this same medicine had been in use for treating depression for years.  So why isn’t stem-cell therapy FDA-approved in the United States?  The answer is – “beats me. “ The stem cells are actually not a drug, they are your own cells.  Stem cell therapy is the technical equivalent of giving you a blood transfusion with your own pre-donated blood.  The sticking point is that the cells are frozen, [funny, don’t we already know that frozen sperm and frozen embryos work just fine?]  and this is why we have to jet to a lovely tropical paradise to receive them when you need them [for now].  There ARE some facilities that use stem cells for therapy, but in order to participate, you must actually have the disease being treated and then qualify to be included in these academic studies.  In mu mind, I really believe that we will be treating ourselves with our own stem cells in about 18-24 months when the FDA approves their use, but in the meantime, I will be going to the lovely spa facility that already exists in beautiful, sunny Mexico to get my beauty boost [tragic, but somehow, I’ll survive].  The second sticking point is the cost, the drugs and the collection fee are expensive, and insurance doesn’t cover it.   The actual storage fees are affordable, and since you only have to donate once, it makes a better investment of your money than a mutual fund right now… I hope that this informative.  I look forward to showing you the videotape of my own stem cell therapy from sunny Mexico very soon, until then…Adios!” Have a Beautiful Day! Dr. Lisa

Botox- are you a man or a mouse? By dr212renew | February 17, 2009 Oh Boy, Botox makes me JUMP for joy!   A controversial study raises the concern that the popular anti-wrinkle treatment Botox may travel from its injection site into the brain.  For the study, published in April 2008 in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers injected botulinum toxin–the active ingredient in Botox- into the whisker muscles of rats.  Researchers then looked at the connected brain areas for signs of the toxin.  Within three days of the injection, they found remnants of a protein broken down by the toxin in an area of the brainstem.  The toxin also moved from one hippocampus, which controls long-term memory and spatial navigation, to the hippocampus on the oppossite side of the brain, and from the superior colliculus, the part of the brain associated with eye-head coordination, back to the eye.  The study found that brain cell activity was disrupted both where botulinum neurotoxin was injected and in some of the distant-but-connected sites.  But, the dose injected into the rat’s whisker pad was about 150-fold higher than the dose typically used for facial twitching.  The Italian scientists also injected the neurotoxin into the hippocampus and the superior colliculus, the brain region that receives signals from the eye. Joseph Jankovic, MD, professor of neurology and director of the Parkinson’s Disease Center and Movement Disorders clinic at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas conducted the first double blind, placebo-controlled study of botulinum neurotoxin A in the early 1980’s.  Dr. Jankovic  said that he has treated thousands of patients with botulinum toxin and has never observed side effects related to adverse activity of Botox in the brain or spinal cord.  He added that no such CNS effects have been described, even in patients injected therapeutically or inadvertently with very high doses of botulinum toxin. Dr. Jankovic said that Botox is safe when used appropriately and by trained physicians.  First approved by the FDA in 1989 for blepharospasm, further studies on strabismus, facial spasm, cervical dystonia, hyperhidrosis, and cosmetic indications subsequently led to the federal green light.  A list of reported side effects for each of these conditions is provided on the FDA website and on the labeling. But, Dr. Jankovic said that toxic spread into the brain would have resulted in cognitive, spinal, and other neurological problems that have not been documented in any of the millions of patients treated with Botox worldwide and thousands of articles published on its clinical use. So, what to make of all of this data?  The bottom line is that Botox can be found in the brains of rats, when it is INJECTED into the brains of rats–DUH!  So, despite popular belief, it IS possible to have both Beauty and Brains! To see my interview with Fox 5 News NYC on this very topic, click the link below: Dr212Renew interviewed on Fox 5 News about Botox Have a Beautiful Day! Dr. Lisa