Regenerative medicinean alternative to facelifts and surgery

THE REGENESIS clinic at Festival Mall in Alabang. PHOTOS BY ARNOLD ALMACEN

BEFORE training as an aesthetic doctor, Angela Gomez, who first specialized as a pediatrician, was exposed to various skin diseases while treating children.

Invasive beauty procedures are unlikely to fade from the scene anytime soon. But growing advances in regenerative medicine are giving doctors like Angela Gomez more options to offer patients in search of more subtle and natural ways to look and feel younger and thinner.

Regenerative medicine isnt really that new, but a growing number of doctors are going into this direction, said Gomez, who owns and manages two beauty clinics aptly named Regenesis. Regeneration involves stimulating new cells to grow, while at the same time helping damaged cells repair themselves.

Silicone, for instance, wasnt just a preferred material for breast implants during our grandmothers time. Decades ago, some doctors used the synthetic filler to deal with deep creases and laugh lines. It seemed to work well at first until doctors learned that silicone, once injected in the body, is permanent.

If you had your face injected with silicone in your 40s, that silicone could slide or move somewhere else in your 60s and 70s once, say, osteoporosis sets in, said Gomez. Even without osteoporosis, a persons bone structure changes as she ages. Thats why the direction these days is moving toward more natural procedures anchored on regeneration.

Aging, after all, is also a process. You cant undo wrinkles and sunspots accumulated over 20 years in just one day. Repairing and stimulating your cells to make you look younger will also take time.

Its just a matter of stimulating the right cells, said Gomez. You dont stimulate blindly in the hope that every cell in your body would do the things you specifically want. It doesnt work that way. Your doctor should know what ails you.

Myostatin inhibitor to help manage weight

At Regenesis (its clinics are at Festival Mall, Alabang and Metrowalk, Pasig), Gomez resorts to a number of lunchtime procedures to get the job done, from autologous platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections on the face, to cell therapy involving cell extracts taken from sheep and rabbit fetuses formulated in Switzerland.

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Regenerative medicinean alternative to facelifts and surgery