Rejuvalife Vitality Institute
Beverly Hills CA

Fatty Acid Levels Contribute to Disease!

Albert Einstein College of Medicine performed an experiment with young,  healthy, weight-appropriate volunteers in hopes of identifying whether fatty acids in the bloodstream contribute to disease.  It’s long been thought that inflammation in cells contributes to heart disease. In fact, a specific blood test, called a CRP, can measure the level of inflammation and is a direct correlation to the likelihood of developing heart disease.

In this particular experiment, young health adults were injected with fatty acids until their levels were approximately that of those with obesity and diabetes. What were the results? The volunteers developed signs of diabetes and inflammation.

The study shows that the real danger comes from excess fatty acids, that the fat in the blood stream activates inflammatory cells. Dr. Timothy Johnson, one of the researchers, states that it’s possible to reduce the fat in one’s body with a diet low in saturated fat, as well as an increase in exercise to trim down and reduce the amount of inflammation-causing fat on one’s body.

This is exactly what we propose in the 5-Star Wellness program at Rejuvalife, along with stress management, hormone balancing, nutritional supplementation and more–a complete lifestyle strategy and weight management program to improve both your outlook and your “look.”

Click on the video below to see the presentation on ABC News.com:

Everyday Toxins, Deadly Effects

Like most people, you probably don’t spend too much time worrying about your bromine intake from your car upholstery or the Mountain Dew you’re drinking. Bromine toxicity is a very dangerous, and often overlooked, threat to your health that can be found in some surprising sources. In an article by Dr. Thomas Marcola, he explains the dangers of everyday toxins, where they are found, and how to protect yourself against them.

Bromines Everywhere
Bromines are very common endocrine disruptors that fall into the same group of elements as fluorine, chlorine and iodine. A high exposure to bromine can cause an iodine deficiency, which can wreak havoc on your thyroid and every tissue in your body.

You are already exposed to a high amount of bromine and chlorine through common products:
•Pesticides (specifically methyl bromide, used mainly on strawberries, predominantly found in California)
•Plastics that are commonly found in computers and televisions
•Baked goods and some flours often contain potassium bromate
•Soft drinks (including Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Sun Drop, Squirt, Fresca and other citrus-flavored sodas), in the form of brominated vegetable oils
•Medications such as Atrovent Inhaler, Atrovent Nasal Spray, Pro-Banthine and anesthesia agents
•Fire retardants used in fabrics, carpets, upholstery, and mattresses
•Bromine-based treatments for hot tubs and swimming pools

Bromine is most commonly fed into our diets through residue on plants we consume, and overexposure can lead to hypothyroidism and many other health problems.

Bromine And Your Health
Ingesting bromine decreases iodine levels in humans, leading to increased risk for cancer of the breast, thyroid gland, ovary and prostate — cancers that we see at alarmingly high rates today. This phenomenon has been given its own name—the Bromide Dominance Theory.

Bromide also builds up in the central nervous system, acting as a depressant to trigger psychological symptoms, including paranoia.
In addition to psychiatric symptoms, bromine toxicity can manifest as the following:
•Skin rashes and severe acne
•Loss of appetite and abdominal pain
•Fatigue
•Metallic taste
•Cardiac arrhythmias

A popular product from the 1950s called Bromo-Seltzer, developed by the Emerson Drug Company of Baltimore, was used to treat heartburn, upset stomach, indigestion, headaches and hangovers. Bromides were taken off the American market, as well as removed from Bromo-Seltzer, in 1975 due to their toxicity.

Potassium Bromate in Your Bread
The ban on bromines has not prevented them from sneaking into everyday products in the American household. Potassium Bromate is a common compound used in many breads and dough and has been a huge contributor to bromide overload in Western cultures.

Commercial baking companies claim “enriching” the dough with potassium bromate makes it more elastic and better able to stand up to bread hooks. However, Pepperidge Farm and other large companies manage to use only unbromated flour without any of these so-called “structural problems.”

Potassium bromate is also added to some toothpastes and mouthwashes and has been proven to cause bleeding of the gums.

Sodium Bromate, BMOs, and Where They Hide
Mountain Dew uses brominated vegetable oil as an emulsifier. Even drinking water can be a source of bromide. When drinking water containing bromide is exposed to ozone, bromate ions are formed, which are powerful oxidizing agents. In 2004, the Coca Cola Company had to recall Dasani bottled waters with high levels of bromate. Sodium bromate can also be found in commonly used products such as permanent waves, hair dyes, and textile dyes.

Bromine and chlorine were the most common toxic elements reportedly found in automobiles, according to David Brownstein, MD. They were found in the seats, armrests, door trim, shift knobs and other areas of the car.

The United States is behind other Western countries in removing the toxin from products. In 1990, the United Kingdom banned bromate in bread dough. In 1994, Canada did the same. Brazil recently outlawed bromide in flour products.

Iodine Levels and Cancer Risk
Iodine levels have significantly dropped due to toxic bromine exposure; declining consumption of iodized salt, eggs, fish, and sea vegetables; and soil depletion. In the U.S. population, there was a 50 percent reduction in urinary iodine excretion between 1970 and 1990.

The Japanese consume 89 times more iodine than Americans due to their daily consumption of sea vegetables. Because of this, the Japanese have reduced rates of many chronic diseases, including the lowest rates of cancer in the world. The RDA for iodine in the U.S. is a meager 150 mcg/day, which is significantly less than the average daily intake of 13800 mcg/day for the Japanese.

There is extensive evidence suggesting that low cancer rates in Japan are a result of their substantially higher iodine levels. Iodine has proven antioxidant and anti-proliferative properties.

Low iodine can lead to fibrocystic breast disease in women (density, lumps and bumps), hyperplasia, and atypical mammary tissue. The supplementation of iodine of a period of 3-4 months has been shown to reverse fibrocystic changes in breast. The urine iodine challenge test is the best way to assess iodine levels in humans.

Bromine and Your Thyroid
Bromine exposure depletes your body’s iodine by competing with iodine receptors. Without iodine, your thyroid gland would be unable to produce any thyroid hormone.

Hypothyroidism is far more prevalent in the U.S. than once thought. An estimated 13 million Americans have hypothyroidism, but the actual numbers are probably higher. Some experts claim that 10 to 40 percent of Americans have subpar thyroid function. In most cases, the person is simply suffering from iodine deficiency.

Seven Tips for Avoiding Bromine and Increasing Iodine
Here are a few tips for minimizing your risk of bromine toxicity:
1. Eat organic foods as often as possible. Wash all produce thoroughly to minimize your pesticide exposure.
2. Avoid eating from, drinking from, or storing food and water in plastic containers. Use glass and safe ceramic vessels as often as possible.
3. Look for organic whole-grain breads and flour, or for the “no bromine” or “bromine-free” label on commercial baked goods. If possible, grind your own grains.
4.Drink natural, filtered water instead of sodas.
5. Look into an ozone purification system if you are a hot tub owner. Such systems clean water with minimal chemical treatments.
6. Look for personal care products that are as chemical-free as possible.
7. When in a car or building, open windows as often as possible. Preferably open multiple windows for cross ventilation. Utilize fans to circulate the potentially toxic air.

The 5-minute nose job

Walk down any street in Beverly Hills and I promise that within 5 minutes you’ll pass at least 10 people who’ve had a nose job. Beverly Hills is one of America’s top cosmetic surgery cities and rhinoplasty is one of the most popular procedures here.

Unfortunately, a rhinoplasty is expensive, might involve numerous revisions, and requires a fairly long recovery period during which it’s obvious to the world that you just had a nose job. Not to mention the whole general anesthesia issue.

There’s another option that’s gaining in popularity: the 5-minute nose job, AKA Nose in a Needle.

OK, it’s not exactly 5 minutes—maybe 10—but it is fast, vastly less expensive, much less risky, and the results are immediate with little down time. There’s no general anesthesia, no packing and no sutures. Instead of a scalpel, my tools are a syringe and natural dermal fillers. Unlike most cosmetic surgeons in Beverly Hills, rhinoplasty without surgery is actually one of my specialties.

There’s only one downside: it’s not forever. Because a 5-minute nose job uses dermal fillers, it lasts only about two or three years. However, this can actually be an advantage in that you aren’t “stuck” with one look forever. You can change it again later. In other words, as your nose “ages” and starts to droop, we can “perk up” your nose tip in a matter of minutes.

The procedure does come with its risks, as any procedure does. Too much filler can damage the tender nasal tissues, even compromising the blood supply. Infection is always a risk. A poorly done procedure will leave you looking funny for those 2-3 years unless you have a revision done. This speaks to the issue of having any procedure, whether a nose job or liposuction, performed only by a fully trained medical doctor who has done many of them. I’ve been doing these procedures for many, many years and love to do them. If you’re thinking about a nose job and want to investigate the potential of having a non-surgical version, schedule a visit with me. It doesn’t work for every nose, but it is appropriate for most of them.

Solutions for Acne and Chickenpox Scars

Anyone who’s suffered with scars as a reminder of teenage acne, chickenpox or measles, knows the  embarrassment those scars and pock marks have upon them as adults.  Facial pits are the pits but modern skin laser and filler treatments can help them disappear or, at the very least, fade.

These kinds of scars can be filled with dermal fillers or smoothed down with microdermabrasion or laser resurfacing, depending upon the scar’s depth. The laser that I use the most, the Pixel, is very effective for acne scars and pock marks, as well as a variety of fillers. A combination of laser treatments and fillers provide an excellent solution with minimal or no downtime involved.

Are you blushing or is that rosacea?

As we age, we may notice a blush on the cheeks that might extend into the jawline and onto the nose as well. While we’d like to imagine this is nothing more than a healthy glow, the truth is it might be rosacea.

Persistent red blotchiness, dry skin or bumpy, rough skin–perhaps even bumps that appear to be acne–might be rosacea. It tends to run in families, so if one or both of your parents had rosacea, you’re more likely to get it as well.

Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory condition in the skin. Although it can develop at any age, it’s more often seen after the age of 40. It can be triggered or worsened by alcohol, heat, stress or spicy foods.

If rosacea is giving you a blush, consider giving it the “blush-off” with a series of IPL treatments, followed by maintenance every 3 – 4 months, which can reduce the redness and repair the deeper layers of the skin. Gels, lotions, or creams containing metronidazole, an antibiotic available by prescription, is a frequently-used treatment that has also shown good results.

Obese children may be more likely to die prematurely.

On February 11^th, the NY Times reported on a National Institutes of Health study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that tracked nearly 5,000 American Indian children in Arizona for 24 years, showing that overweight children are “more than twice as likely to die early from natural causes, such as alcoholic liver disease, cardiovascular disease, infections, cancer, and diabetes as children whose weight put them in the lowest quarter of the population.”

The researches were quoted as saying that in addition to health problems, overweight kids were twice as likely to die before the age of 55 of “self-inflicted injury.” Further, although “youngsters with…pre-diabetes were at almost double the risk of dying before 55, and those with high blood pressure were at some increased risk,” it was obesity that was “most closely associated with an early death.”

As reported in one of my earlier blog posts, the number of overweight kids has tripled since 1980 with about 17% of our kids considered obese. There are serious health consequences down the road for these children. WebMD reported on 2/10/10 that “death rates from natural causes among children in the highest group of glucose intolerance (a risk factor for developing diabetes) were 73% higher than among the children in the lowest group of glucose intolerance.” While “no substantial links were found between cholesterol levels and premature deaths,” the study authors “did find that high blood pressure in childhood raised the risk of premature death from natural causes by about 1.5 times.”

Our kids are engaged in too many activities that involve sitting and, often, eating, as well as lack of control on portion size. We, as parents, must instill good food habits in our kids at the earliest ages, and I urge all of us to pay close attention to what our preschool kids are eating. If they’re in preschool, ask what’s served for snacks and lunch. Kids love hotdogs and cheese, but they are not healthy options. Once our kids get to elementary school and lunches are available in the cafeteria, our influence wanes even more. Depending on the school district, student lunches can be very high in fat and sodium, and most schools have multiple candy and soda machines throughout the building, encouraging kids to snack on junk.

If it is to be, it’s up to us to actively monitor both our kids’ food intake (quantity as well as quality) and activity levels. Make it a goal that your kids go outside daily to play. Go to the gym and take them with you. Go for family walks, play ball outdoors. We have beautiful weather here in California, so be sure to take advantage of it as often as you can and set that good example for your kids as if their lives depended on it. According to the studies above, they do.

Pending Italian Breast Ban?

The Italian Parliament, concerned that 36% of Italy’s teenaged girls are displeased with their appearance, has proposed a ban on cosmetic breast implants for girls 18 and younger. The hope is that, by making it illegal to obtain breast implants before the age of 18, even with parental consent, the emphasis on physical perfection may be diminished a bit. Of note is that there would be no ban on breast implants inserted for medical reasons, such as tuberous breasts, for example.

The bill also provides for a breast implant registry, to track and trace breast implant problems, and enhanced privacy guarantees for cosmetic surgery patients.

I suppose we’ll soon  see an Italian stampede of 19 year old girls getting breast implants.

Move over Juvederm!

There’s a new filler in town. It’s safe, proven to work, hypoallergenic, cost-effective and the results last from 6 months to a year.  It’s made from your own cells but it’s not fat and it’s not stem cells. Give up? Read on…

Imagine (A) going to the doctor and (B) within 20-30 minutes the doctor has removed a little blood from your arm, spun it around in a machine to remove the concentrated growth factors (these are the potent ingredients in your own blood that will stimulate the production of very high quality collagen) and (C) injected it into the wrinkles or acne scar depressions. You leave the office and go about your day—no downtime.

Within 3 weeks you see visible effects as your own collagen begins to fill in the scar depressions and/or wrinkles. During this time your skin quality becomes more luminous and soft in texture. It actually begins to go back in time in terms of its appearance.

Your growth factors can be injected to the face, hands or any other area of the body.

This can also be used to enhance the results of fat transfers by adding these highly concentrated growth factors into the fat injected into the face, breasts, back of hands, etc.  I actually tip the threads for our Beverly Hills Silhouette Lift procedures in these factors to enhance the results of our non-surgical face lifts.

This procedure, which we call RejuvaPhyl, is available now in our Beverly Hills office!

Watch this video to learn more!

Scientists discover new secrets of aging

Can we become younger?

One of the biggest puzzles in biology – how and why living cells age – continues to be a subject of investigation and research. An international team based at Newcastle University in NE England, along with researchers at the University of Ulm in Germany, has added some new evidence to the discussion.

The answer to the secret of aging is complex, and will not produce a magic anti-aging elixir in the foreseeable future. However, we can certainly expect better treatments to be created to fight age-related illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease, not to mention things like wrinkle treatments, as a result of these new insights into the biochemical pathways involved in the aging process.

The research teams used a comprehensive systems biology approach, involving computer modeling, experiments using cell cultures and genetically modified mice to investigate why and how our cells age. They learned that old cells either stop dividing or self-destruct. Those cells that continue to divide, and the tissues they make up, show physical signs of deterioration, from wrinkling skin to a weakening cardiovascular system.

The research, which was recently published by the journal Molecular Systems Biology, shows that when an ageing cell discover serious damage to its DNA (caused by the wear and tear of life) the cell transmits specific distress signals that trigger the cell’s energy-producing power packs, the mitochondria, to manufacture free radical molecules, which in turn give the directions to the cell either to destroy itself or to stop dividing. The cells likely are programmed to do this to avoid allowing the damaged DNA to exist, as that causes cancer.

This study identifies additional major causative factors in addition to the role of telomeres, the protective tips on the ends of human chromosomes, which gradually become shorter as we grow older. This new information does not deny the importance of telomere shortening, but it illustrates that there are additional, vital factors, and the biology is very complicated.

These new findings indicate that we have a much better chance of making a successful attack on age-related diseases while at the same time avoiding the risk of unwanted side-effects such as cancer. We need to be very careful in researching new ways to prevent cellular aging, however, because the last thing we want to do is to help age-damaged cells to become malignant ones.

Body-Jet: Not Your Everyday Liposuction

Imagine a liposuction method that’s kinder on your body and one of the most potent methods to yield ready-to-inject fat for fat grafting into your hands, face, breasts, into wrinkles and acne scar depressions. It’s here and we know you want to know about it.

As many of my readers know, liposuction was originally created back in 1974 by Dr. Giogio Fischer, an Italian gynecologist. Over the years it’s become more refined, to eliminate excessive bleeding, pain and rippling of the skin after the procedure. The tumescent technique ultimately enabled patients to benefit from liposuction under local anesthesia without the fear of undesirable skin depressions or excessive bleeding. I warrant that the Body-Jet is tumescent squared. Better than anything I’ve seen so far.

This is why I think Body-Jet is the best liposuction method available today

First, in traditional liposuction, the anesthesia is combined with the saline and infused into the body at the beginning of the procedure. In Body-Jet, the cannula distributes a continuous spray of Lidocaine (liquid anesthesia) into the area, which makes it much more comfortable for the patient and eliminates much of the bruising and bleeding of the procedure. This makes for a faster recovery and, hence, less time away from business and social activities. Patients both look and feel better, sooner.

Secondly, in traditional tumescent or laser liposuction, the fat cells are physically forced apart. In Body-Jet, the fat cells are sprayed with the fluid so that they essentially float out, preserving them in a way that makes it easy to use those fat cells for immediate injection into another part of the body. They literally are sent into a special container so that they require less processing to inject. I can rapidly remove fat from one part of you and inject it into another part of you where you need it—such as into wrinkles, into the backs of your hands, into scars, into the breast tissue, just about anywhere. And the quality of the fat is better, too! Therefore, it lasts longer—about 80% of the fat is retained compared with only about 50% of the fat retained from fat cells that are put through the centrifuge.

Third, traditional liposuction is more traumatic to the surrounding tissues and blood supplies. Body-Jet is gentler and safer. The final appearance of the skin is much better in Body-Jet as well, with much less risk of dimpling or uneven contours.

Check out our website for more info about Body-Jet and watch my video for more info on this amazing new technology!