Ms. 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, youre blooming!", she told AFP.

The procedure involves harvesting the patients 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 elite are obsessed with anti-ageing, wealthy Filipinos are shelling out between $12,500 and $18,000 per session in the belief stem cell therapy will improve their health and make them look younger.

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

"They do it because they want to work longer," Mr. Lucero told AFP. "And then they tell their wives or girlfriends."

Mr. Lucero said Filipinos had been receiving anti-ageing stem cell treatment since the 1970s, often flying abroad to do so.

Thai medical entrepreneur Bobby Kittichaiwong says he has a lucrative business catering to the Filipino elite, who pay $20,000 to visit his Villa Medica clinic in Germany for a more controversial form of stem cell therapy.

The clinic harvests cells from unborn sheep to be injected into a patients muscles, known as fresh cell therapy, and Mr. Kittichaiwong said 400 Filipinos visited last year. "After 14 days, the patients skin will glow and their digestive and immune systems will improve," he told AFP.

Among Villa Medicas high-profile clients is former president Joseph Estrada, 76, who has staged a remarkable political comeback in recent years after being forced to stand down from the nations top job in 2001 because of corruption. "Now I sleep better, my knees are no longer a problem, my skin has been radiant like this ever since," reads a testimonial from Mr. Estrada in a Villa Medica brochure.

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Elite fight ageing with stem cell therapy