In a picture taken on Oct. 27, 2013, Cynthia Carrion-Norton gestures as she speaks during an interview at her home in Manila. 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. AFP PHOTO/JAY DIRECTO

MANILA, PhilippinesCynthia Carrion-Norton flits high-heeled around Metro Manila with energy levels belying her years, thankful for a controversial treatment she highly recommends to fellow 60-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, youre blooming! she told Agence France-Presse (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 the elite are obsessed with anti-aging, wealthy Filipinos are shelling out between $12,500 (about P540,000) and $18,000 (about P780,000) per session of stem cell therapy in the belief it will improve their overall health and make them look younger.

Public officials

Rich businessmen and public officialsmostly maleare 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.

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

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Philippines’ rich fight aging with stem cell therapy