What to Do If the Suction Bra Does Not Fit: Breast Extension with Saline Solution

Today, a patient comes for an extension treatment of her breast with saline solution. If this is done regularly, it can save breast augmentation patients the hassle of wearing a mechanical suction bra, something that can make sense before a breast augmentation with the body’s own fat and stem cells. In her case there was no perfectly fitting suction bra cup available, not even in the United States. Thus the pre-stretching with saline solution is a pleasant alternative for her!

At this procedure 0.9 % saline solution gets injected into the breast concerning, which leads to a breast swelling and to an increase in volume of up to 2 cup sizes. Two days later the injected liquid gets absorbed by the body and the breast returns to its original size.

Recently young American girls have discovered this treatment for themselves to quickly present a bigger bosom over the weekend, as you know as reader of my blog. The downside of this “party bosom”: By repeating this procedure frequently tightness of the breast suffers – similar to the process of milk engorgement.

We use to turn exactly this effect to account in the pre-treatment for autologous fat transfer into the breast (lipofilling): The pre-stretching creates more place for the later injected autologous fat and thus allows for a more extensive augmentation.

The treatment with saline solution is particularly suitable for a breast reconstruction with autologous fat and stem cells or in case of very tight breast tissue.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Is Hormone Therapy Useful When Hormones Are in the Normal Range? (Part 1)

A patient writes:

So I think that hormone therapy is not useful, since all laboratory values are normal and I do not want to artificially influence values that are within the normal range.

This is a common fallacy! The reference values of the laboratories are clearly too broad from an anti-aging point of view (all hormone levels in both healthy and diseased 20- to 80-year-olds are collected and a central range is defined statistically) and disregard the age-related decrease in hormone production.

For instance, the values of testosterone or HGH could be fallen by half since the age of 25 and would still be “normal” according to the laboratory reference values because, of course, they are still better than those of 80-year-olds. This reduction by 50 percent would be responsible for a large part of the symptoms of “aging”, which should be treated with bioidentical hormones (BHRT).

DDr. Heinrich, MD

How Many Body Parts Can Be Liposuctioned at Once?

A patient wants to know:

Can there be fat liposuctioned from the legs, abdomen, knees, and upper arms in one ‎surgery‬?

My answer was: It depends on the overall volume of fat planned to be extracted in the liposuction. Usually it is not advisable to do too many regions at once. So we would recommend rather having legs, abdomen, knees done in one surgery and upper arms in another.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Is Breast Augmentation Always “Cosmetic Surgery”? (Part 1)

With breast augmentation with autologous fat it is the same as with liposuction – it depends on whether therapeutic aims get pursued or if the intervention just serves as modification of the body shape. As mentioned before we do nearly all our surgeries based on therapeutic motivation in our office, although they have their origin in the aesthetic sector.

In further blogs I am going to give you some examples.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Infusion Therapy with Alpha Lipoic Acid for Detoxification of Mercury

Alpha lipoic acid can not only be used for the removal of excess sugar deposits from our tissues. It also can also help to drive out mercury and other toxins that we have taken up over the environment and food.

Alpha lipoic acid is a powerful antioxidant, which is used for the therapy of diabetes and the damage it causes to the nerves. It “cleans” our cells and removes sugar deposits and toxins such as mercury from our tissue.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Breast Augmentation with Stem Cells in Addition to Silicone Implants?

Right now a patient asked:

I would like to enquire if an additional breast augmentation with stem cells is also possible in women who already have silicone implants.

My answer: If implants are palpable through the skin or if you can even recognize their edges it might be sensible to bolster up the tissue with stem cell-enriched autologous fat. Afterwards the breast should look more natural and the implants should not be palpable/visible anymore.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Eyebrows like Cara Delevingne Thanks to Hair Follicle Growth Factors?

Women plucked their eyebrows beyond recognition until recently. Now thick and bushy eyebrows à la Cara Delevingne are in. Like most of the models who belong to the Crème de la Crème of the model business, Cara distinguishes herself with one special characteristic – her significant distinctive eyebrows. The British supermodel is starting a new trend now with her special feature.

It’s not surprising that women look up to the young Briton because of her successful career in the world of beauty. Among others she was seen as face of Burberry, was modeling as Victoria’s Secret Angel, has been photographed for Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana and is now taking her first album as singer. Great support is ensured by none other than Rihanna’s producer, with whom she was presenting herself recently on Instagram.

As frequent reader of my blog you know why thick, dense eyebrows are perceived to be sexy both in men and women: They reflect a vast production of thyroid hormones (T3, T4) and sexual hormones (testosterone, estrogen, progesterone). Both are important hormone groups for metabolism, vitality, and sexual attractiveness. Elder men and women, who are considered to be sex symbols in spite of advanced age, are characterized by thick and dark eyebrows. This reflects the opinion, that people from the age of 50 are perceived as sexy, if they obviously have enough hormones.

Do plucked eyebrows have any allure? They let women appear unoffending and weaker and are able to wake up our protective instinct for that reason. This effect was emphasized especially at young women in the last years. The fact that young men with enormous plucked eyebrows appear less male anyhow has not sprung from nowhere.

Now it was time for a trend change! Unfortunately brows do not regrow properly if they were “maltreated” by plucking for years. There we have a new therapy: With special growth factors from hair follicle cells (hair follicle growth factors, HFGF) hair growth can be stimulated.

In the treatment a serum with appropriate growth factors, which can nowadays be produced in a biosynthetic way, gets injected into the skin in the eyebrow region by the help of short micro-needles. New brow hairs grow relatively quickly. The treatment is easy to handle and can be performed at home by yourself after a short demonstration.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy can be performed in combination with treatment with growth factors or as an alternative. In the PRP treatment valuable platelets are obtained out of a small amount of autologous blood, which get afterwards injected in concentrated form into the eyebrow region by gentle micro-needles. The injected platelets stimulate the function of stem cells, by which hair growth gets supported.

We can also utilize stem cells isolated from autologous fat, which have a notable regenerative potential that can be utilized to provide thin, fine hair and eyebrows greater density. This treatment is a little bit more elaborate because the isolation of stem cells out of a small amount of fat requires a liposuction with microcannulas. Each treatment can be repeated on demand.

As a complement to this Perfect Skin, an optimal combination of amino acids and peptides strengthens the hair from within and makes the skin fresher and more vital.

If the great breakthrough is actually coming for Cara Delevingne with the help of Rihanna’s producer, she will probably have less time for the runway and her model life will take a backseat. But in the meantime a lot of women worldwide will have followed the trend of wearing bushy eyebrows set by her. And who knows – maybe Rihanna is going to copy Cara and we can also soon admire her with new, thick eyebrows.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Correction of Breast Asymmetry with Autologous Fat

Today we again got consulted by a patient who has a much smaller left breast, which makes her suffer mentally. What can be done? Autologous fat transfer and stem cell enriched autologous fat can be used to compensate the difference in size.

Often multiple surgeries are necessary. One surgery appointment may be sufficient if the breast has been pre-stretched before the breast correction using lipofilling is performed, either with a suction bra (extension bra) or by continuous injection of saline solution.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Aesthetic Surgery: Body Modification versus Therapy

Pure “cosmetic surgeries” (or better “body modifications”), that means surgical interventions which are neither performed for reconstruction of objective physical deficits nor indicated therapeutically to treat the patient’s physiological strain, are hardly done by us today.

In contrast, in my ordination we almost exclusively carry out therapeutically indicated aesthetic interventions, which help to improve the physical and/or psychological health situation of our patients.

DDr. Heinrich, MD