For centuries, people-and not just women, but men too-have been obsessed with the twin concepts of youth and beauty. The legend woven around Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth is something that has kept us enthralled since the 16th century.

Whether it is true or not, the fact remains that the search for ageless beauty and youth has turned into a worldwide obsession. Medical practitioners say that this generation is more fortunate because advances in medicine and cosmetic dermatology have been so rapid that now practically any threat to staying young can be addressed. Lasers and stem-cell therapy are just two of the innovations we have seen in recent decades that are helping people stay young and beautiful.

The good news is that there is an increasing number of Filipino doctors who are staying abreast with these new trends. One of them is Dr. Francis Decangchon of the newly-opened Asian Center for Ageless Beauty (located at the second floor of the La Breza Hotel along Mother Ignacia Street in Quezon City, a stone's throw away from EDSA and the ABS-CBN compound). A graduate of the UST College of Medicine and a practitioner of cosmetic dermatology for years and regarded as an expert in the field, Dr. Decangchon has branched out into what is known as regenerative or anti-aging medicine. Although it might sound like a whole lot of medical mumbo-jumbo, it's actually not: all it is, at its core, is a simple and straightforward theory that has been studied and picked apart by experts and is just now beginning to come to light.

Dr. Decangchon explains that during the '50s and '60s, those who wanted to stay young had to resort to radical measures that involved invasive, meaning surgical, procedures. Of late, however, the emphasis has shifted to minimally-invasive, less invasive or, in some cases, non-invasive ways of staying young or ageless.

When women, for instance, hit their 30s and 40s, they began to lose their natural supply of collagen and elastin. The skin begins to sag and lose its elasticity. Fortunately, there is a solution. "Nowadays," says Dr. Decangchon, "you have patients at 30 years old; they can already start having lifting, so by the time you reach your 50s and 60s, banat pa 'yan. If you start treatments early, 50s ka na, di ka pa nag-lo-lose, because lasers are also used to stimulate the production of collagen and elastin."

The Asian Center for Ageless Beauty is one of the few clinics pioneering these kinds of treatments and approach to beauty. But aside from the usual facials, laser treatments and yes, liposuction, one service they offer that has generated a lot of interest falls within the purview of what is known as regenerative medicine, which is the in thing now in Europe and the US.

"This establishment is for more than just aesthetic surgery or cosmetic dermatology; it's for regenerative medicine, which is the in-thing now," says Dr. Decangchon. "It's the specialty of the 21st century. Because when we start to age, the main thing you lose is the dwindling hormonal supply. This happens not just during menopause in women, but also andropause in men. So what we do is hormone replacement, but specifically, bio-identical hormones, meaning you're replacing something that is identical to what you're losing."

For example, fat cells that are taken from your body contain stem cells. Dr. Decangchon says that as opposed to stem cell treatments that involve harvesting stem cells from sheep, these are stem cells coming from your own body. Stem cells are actually present in three areas or regions of your body: your blood, your bone marrow, and your fat. But fat has a thousand times more stem cells than the two others; and stem cells, he goes on to explain, "are very, very young cells that are pluri-potential, meaning they have the tendency to grow to become a muscle cell, a joint cell, a fat cell, a heart muscle cell-they have that potential. Uso 'yan ngayon. Kapag masakit ang joints mo, if you have osteoarthritis, it can go to that area and rejuvenate it. Ni-re-renew niya lahat."

Dr. Decangchon's Asian Center for Ageless Beauty offers this kind of treatment. He believes that it is controversial only because people don't really understand enough about it. Infusions of bio-identical hormones are safer because they are hormones/cells taken from other areas of your body and re-directed to where they are needed.

Before, it used to be, when you submit to a liposuction, everybody thought it was the end of the line and the fat that is extracted is simply thrown away. However, now medical practitioners and cosmetic or regenerative surgeons like Dr. Decangchon are finding out that nothing can be further from the truth. "Your fat can be used, number one, as fillers, instead of synthetic fillers. Hindi ka dapat matakot kasi taba mo din 'yan. It's all yours," he says.

Excerpt from:
A new haven for ageless beauty