By: Alexandra Geperle, Agence France-Presse November 6, 2013 11:55 AM

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines -- Cynthia Carrion-Norton flits high-heeled around the Philippine capital with energy levels belying her years, thankful for a controversial treatment she highly recommends to fellow sixty-somethings.

Carrion-Norton, 66, a member of the Philippine Olympic Committee and a former undersecretary for medical tourism, credits her vitality to adult stem cell therapy.

"The day I got the therapy I went to a dinner party and everyone told me: 'Cynthia, you're blooming!" Carrion-Norton told AFP.

The procedure involves harvesting the patient's stem cells from their own fat and injecting them into their blood, which she likened to being injected with intravenous fluid in the arm.

In a country where many among the elite are obsessed with anti-aging, wealthy Filipinos are shelling out between $12,500 and $18,000 per session of stem cell therapy in the belief it will improve their overall health and make them look younger.

Rich businessmen and public officials -- mostly male -- are the most eager customers, according to Florencio Lucero, a doctor in Manila who said he started performing adult stem cell therapy in 2006.

"They do it because they want to work longer," Lucero told AFP.

"And then they tell their wives or girlfriends."

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BUYING TIME | Philippine elite fight aging with stem cell therapy