Tanning Treatment with Melanotropin

A patient with very light skin wants to know more about treatment for skin tanning with melanotropin analogues:

I am very interested in treatments with melanotropin and melanotan substances. How are they actually administered?

Melanotropin analogues are either absorbed by nasal mucosa (snuffed) or injected into subcutaneous tissue. The hormone melanotropin stimulates the body’s own production of the dark skin pigment melanin, which tans skin visibly.

This therapy especially helps people with light skin type to get tanned more quickly as well as to prevent dangerous sunburns – because of the tan the skin gets more sun-resistant and therefore it provides a natural protection against harmful UV light.

Doctors who propagate therapies with melanotropin analogues additionally refer to protection against skin aging and argue that even the risk for skin cancer can be decreased to a certain degree. To date a therapy with melanotropin is only permitted for specific indications. This means that we have to wait and see if a tanning therapy with the agent melanotropin is soon generally permitted – to the chagrin of sun lotion industry.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Christopher Lee: No Immortality for Count Dracula

Sad rumors have been recently confirmed: The British actor Christopher Lee – probably most world-famous blood sucker – died at the age of 93 of cardiovascular disorders. He played more than 300 roles throughout his life. If in James Bond, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or Star Wars – he steadily took the part of the villain. However, he already gained cult status with his probably most-defining figure as “Count Dracula” in 1858.

The story of the film is rather freely adapted to the original novel of Bram Stoker. It plays in Transylvania at the Hungarian-Romanian border where a vampire hunter has the mission by order of his partner Dr. Abraham Van Helsing to defeat the notorious Count Dracula, on which he failed for the time being. Instead, Count Dracula succeeded in biting his opponent and as a consequence turned him into a vampire. Only at the end of the film Count Dracula gets defeated by the impinging of the gleaming sun onto his skin during a fight against his adversary Van Helsing.

Pale skin, garlic phobia, and the shyness of daylight belong to vampires, which could recently reach cult status for female teenagers with the popular TV series Vampire Diaries. The protagonist Elena decides for love to become a vampire and therefore obtains superhuman abilities, including relative immortality. The immortality of vampires is a mythos, which is millennia-old and brought together from multiple sources. If Medea, Bride of Corinth, or Carmilla, numerous literature of all different eras are linking rejuvenation with the intake of fresh blood since the ancient times.

Of course blood sucking doesn’t provide immortality. But instead of this blood does possess other features, which can possibly turn back time – at least when it comes to the skin and wear and injuries of joints.

The so-called “vampire lifting” became a real anti-aging trend in the last years – both It Girl Kim Kardashian and top model Bar Rafaeli swear by it. By the means of platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which is taken from the patient’s blood, remarkable regeneration success can be achieved. The precious components of blood – blood platelets (thrombocytes), tissue hormones and growth factors – are injected into the desired skin areas where they can take their regenerative and rejuvenating effect immediately after isolation. The effects lasts for several months, repeat treatments are recommendable.

To achieve an even stronger and more sustainable regenerative effect, combination of autologous blood treatments with stem cells extracted from autologous fat is possible. The required stem cells are isolated from a small amount of the patient’s fat, which is harvested by the means of liposuction with microcannulas. Locally injected they support regeneration of skin in facial areas, cleavage, and hands.

Thus it shows that blood combined with stem cells can actually lead to a juvenile vital, smooth skin, for which vampires are famous. Fortunately interested women will be spared sucking blood out of the victim’s neck, because this would be – with all due enthusiasm for rejuvenation – a little bit macabre, and probably Christopher Lee would not have loved to do that in real life too.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Tubular Breasts: Correction with Fat Transfer?

A patient asks us by e-mail about breast correction with lipofilling:

As a woman with small, slightly tubular breasts who doesn’t like the appearance of breast implants I became interested in the stem cell breast augmentation technique. Can it help?

Correction of tubular breasts can be achieved with standard fat transfer as well as stem cell-assisted lipotransfer. Sometimes a special needling technique has to be employed during surgery to open up the contracting tissue that causes the tubular appearance. Depending on the volume difference and the breast’s shape multiple procedures may be necessary to achieve the desired result.

In case of a significant asymmetry or tight breast tissue wearing a suction bra device can help to pre-stretch the smaller breast in order to allow for accommodation of a larger amount of fat. Extension treatment of the breast can also be performed by injecting saline solution into the breast. The swelling caused by the injected saline solution stretches the breast tissue and will subside within about two days. This method is especially useful if there is no suction bra cup available that fits perfectly.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Filling up Hollow Cheeks with Stem Cells?

A patient asks about facial regeneration with stem cells extracted from autologous fat:

I have got a question regarding facial rejuvenation: Are stem cells able to fill up my sunken cheeks and is it maybe possible that my tiny sagging double chin becomes tightened?

Hollow cheeks are often a sign for hormonal deficiencies, especially of the hormonal system of the adrenal glands (hormones cortisol and DHEA). By a treatment with bioidentical hormones (Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy, BHRT) cheeks commonly fill up without autologous fat injections or injection of any other artificial substance (“fillers”).

In the patient’s case it would rather be the best option to only work with stem cells extracted from her body fat first of all, by which a tightening effect on the facial tissue is also achieved. The required stem cells are obtained from a small amount of autologous fat, which is harvested with fine microcannulas gently under local anesthesia.

Subsequently a treatment with bioidentical hormones can be done. Therapies with bioidentical hormones mostly take either 3 or 6 cycles (1 cycle = 28 days). Refreshments and repetitions are fixed depending on individual needs.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Blake Lively’s Obsession with Slenderness During Pregnancy

Size zero is on everyone’s lips. The successful actress Blake Lively for instance confesses her panic fear of “becoming fat”. She even tries eagerly to flee from physiological weight gain during pregnancy. Who wonders that not only celebrities, but also young “average consumers” become addicted to thinness obsession evermore?

Obviously it is not in Blake’s mind that she could maybe harm her unborn child substantially with her Kushi diet, in which proteins of any kind are avoided. Algae, germs and other green stuff are on her menu – sounds jejune, it also is.

What would we recommend to her? A normal Western nutrition with all the trimmings including pizza and burger would definitely be better for her unborn child than such a malnutrition! Indeed Blake should also avoid becoming obese because overweight in pregnancy seems to promote adiposity in children.

Which alternative does Blake have to a Western mixed diet with burger and pizza? A more healthy way of nutrition, which could by the way also be done without risks during pregnancy, is the Paleo diet. The motto is: Back to the Stone Age!

As a reader of my blog you already know the Paleolithic nutrition from Ötzi the Iceman and other blog articles. The meal plan complies with the food that was at the people’s disposal in the Old Stone Age (in technical terminology: Paleolithic).

That would be meat and fish on the one hand and on the other hand everything that grows on trees, bushes or underground like fruits, vegetables, chestnuts or nuts. This nutrition is very high-protein. Milk products should be avoided, because their processing wasn’t yet common at this time, and so should starchy aliments, which are fattening food number one.

Anyone who believes that the latter are indispensable for supply of energy is wrong – after chemical modification in our body fat and proteins can also be used for the production of energy. We are used to it for more than two million years.

Apropos energy production: Like our ancestors in the Stone Age, who sometimes were on search of nutrition or on the hunt without success for many hours, we should also fast frequently for about 14 to 48 hours. By doing so we prevent overweight and give our body the opportunity to obtain the required energy from defect cell components or harmful toxins, which can otherwise accumulate in our body when taking in food continually and periodically.

Because we cannot really attribute any disadvantages to the Paleolithic Diet, it is definitely number one on our list of recommendations for Blake. And a tender steak certainly tastes better than algae and germs – and in return it is absolutely possible to take a pass on fries.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Melting Away Fat Pads with Twincretin?

For several years the fitness sector is booming, because both men and women hardly spare any effort to reach their desired figure. However, many of them suffer from persistent problem areas, which can just be reduced insufficiently despite intensive workout. In particularly severe forms of this problem, such as obesity or lipedema, social exclusion, isolation, a considerable psychological distress and a variety of physical diseases (heart diseases, osteoarthritis, diabetes) may be consequences of excess weight.

New approaches in science now give hope to those who cannot reach their figure ambitions only with the help of liposuction, strict diet and training. It nearly sounds too good to be true: A new, artificially produced substance named “twincretin” obviously makes fad pads melt away – however it is currently tested in laboratory rats only.

Twincretin is a complex protein molecule (peptide), which replicates peptide hormones that are important for digestion. It is able to regulate the blood sugar level and to suppress the appetite. Does this ring in a new age, in which the ideal body weight can be achieved without effort? As a reader of my blog you know that the hormonal balance is important for the ideal body weight. Thus there is generally no need for artificial peptide hormones, whose harmlessness of usage in humans would furthermore have to be discussed.

Fortunately the knowledge we already have in our repertoire is sufficient to treat overweight effectively. The reduction of excess kilos and maintenance of the ideal body weight in the long term can nonetheless be protracted and grueling. Therefore many patients decide for a therapy for medically-supported weight loss. The concept for weight loss provided in my clinic is made up of several steps. Because the reason for overweight is often related to hormonal imbalance an extensive analysis of the hormonal and health status is made at the beginning.

During such a weight loss therapy application of bioidentical hormones to remedy hormonal imbalances and to stimulate the metabolism might be useful. For sustainable weight loss in addition a diet change is essential.

Food supplements can also be helpful. Weight Loss Phaseolin, which is made out of white beans, prevents absorption of carbohydrates from the intestine into the body where they are stored in form of fat pads.

Targeted liposuction of problem areas often turns out as reasonable to support losing weight. Fat tissue produces the female hormone estrogen, which causes the storage of fat also in men. A reduction of fat deposits with the help of liposuction can contribute to restoring the hormonal balance. Liposuction should in any case be performed prior to further measures for weight loss, because afterwards additional weight reduction is usually easier and degeneration of excess tissue is stimulated.

Perhaps we will also use therapeutic aids such as twincretin in weight loss once it is clear how they affect the human metabolism. However, to waive sports and to dishonor healthy nutrition would not be an alternative anyway. Not least because high-quality nutrition is a delight itself, physical activity gives pleasure and both increase the quality of life. And this is what finally matters.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Katy Perry: Breast Augmentation through Prayer?

Who would have thought that Katy Perry, one of the most famous singers worldwide is in fact a reverend’s daughter? Her lyrics do not at all sound pious and demure. With the song I Kissed a Girl she finally made the breakthrough in 2008. In the accompanying video the 30 year old singer shows her body in sexy outfits and provokes with lascivious glance, teasing moves, and arousing text – reason enough for her religious father to criticize her heavily.

As if that wasn’t enough, there is recently an additional occasion to annoyance for Katy’s father, so that he – as the British journal The Sun reports – declares her as “child of the devil”: At the cover shooting for the magazine GQ Russel Brand’s ex-girlfriend presents herself more revealing than ever in short swimwear and demonstrates thereby that she is not only proud of her voice but also of her body.

The curvaceous “Firework” singer tells in an interview with GQ that this wasn’t always that way: As a teenager Katy was eager to more femininity: “I lay on my back one night and looked down at my feet, and I prayed to God. I said, ‘God, will you please let me have boobs so big that I can’t see my feet when I’m lying down?’ God answered my prayers.”

Well, that’s nice for Katy! If perhaps other women’s are praying for big breasts and if they are answered as well? Whatever – anyway, many women rely on the accomplishment of modern medicine to fulfill their desire for a bigger and natural breast at the same time. Instead of silicone, which is often rejected, many women decide for a transfer of their own fat into the breast. Practically most women provide the condition for that: Excess autologous fat tissue around hips and thighs, which they would not mind getting rid of.

Autologous fat transfer can be done with or without addition of further autologous stem cells. The extra stem cells support engraftment of new breast volume and enable a sustainable result. The breast enlarged by breast augmentation with (stem cell-enriched) autologous fat looks natural and also feels “real”.

There is one question remaining: Which cup size can be achieved with this treatment? This depends first of all on the tightness of the breast and how much “space” for additional volume is available. Usually the breast can be augmented by about one cup size more in the course of one surgery appointment.

In case of very tight breast tissue or the desire for more augmentation pre-stretching of the breasts by means of a special suction bra is recommended. In addition to pre-stretching the right technique of liposuction is essential in order to allow for obtaining of an adequate amount of fat. The harvesting of the required fat or stem cells is performed by liposuction with microcannulas. Microcannulas enable particularly efficient fat harvesting and precise forming of the body silhouette at the same time. The procedure is performed on an outpatient basis under local anesthesia, by which way the risks of a general anesthesia can be avoided and an inpatient stay in the hospital is made superfluous.

All this of course warrants a certain effort, which Katy Perry saved herself due to her prayer. Should Katy’s father not rather praise his daughter’s career as example for a talent willed by God instead of criticizing her work publicly? After all she is convinced that her enviable cleavage was granted from “above”, completely without an aesthetic intervention.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Breast Augmentation with Stem Cells for Transgender People

A tansgender patient asks by e-mail:

I am “gender variant”, my figure is quite lean. Is a breast augmentation with stem cells and autologous fat suitable for me? I’d like to achieve a moderate B cup.

The procedure of breast augmentation with stem cells is in general suitable for transsexuals. In individual cases it would be necessary to clarify if enough fat can be harvested to accomplish this desired augmentation of the breast. In addition the breast’s flexibility has to be increased to create enough space for the implanted stem cell-enriched autologous fat. This can be done by wearing a suction bra (e.g., BRAVA system) for several weeks before having the procedure.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Fat from Upper Arms for Breast Augmentation with Lipofilling?

A patient wants to know about autologous fat transfer to the breast:

I am interested in autologous fat injections to the breast. Is there also the possibility to harvest fat from the upper arms?

Autologous fat can in general be harvested from any of the body’s fat deposits. However, in most patients the amount of fat available in the upper arms is insufficient for a noticeable breast augmentation. Usually fat is extracted from hips, thighs, waist, butt, or sometimes also the patient’s belly. On request it is also possible to perform a liposuction for additional shaping of the thighs. The gentle manual liposuction with thin microcannulas enables harvesting of enough fat even in slim women to achieve the desired gain of breast volume.

DDr. Heinrich, MD

Spermidine: The Fountain of Youth?

Spermidine is a substance which is produced by our body and ingested with food. People who are getting very old have a high concentration of it in their blood. It seems to cause the same cleaning program in our body as fasting does: Defect cell components are digested and removed from the body. Cells and organs are thus able to free themselves from toxins and to regenerate. Sounds good – so how do we get to more spermidine?

First of all, by fasting for 24 to 48 hours. In this time enough liquid has to be consumed, preferably such that does not contain any calories like water, tea, soup, etc. During these fasting periods the concentration of spermidine in our body increases, the so-called autophagy (digestion of defect cell components) can proceed. Try it out, you wouldn’t believe how much better and fuller of energy you feel the days after such a fasting period!

So how do we get more spermidine, except by fasting and from sperm? We could eat more of the following things: wheat germs, nuts, citrus fruits, soya beans, mushrooms, and natto (a Korean dish made out of fermented soya beans that is a bit strange for our taste). Weight loss is important as well!

DDr. Heinrich, MD