Rejuvalife Vitality Institute
Beverly Hills CA

It’s a New Year—Will it Also Be a New You?

It’s a New Year—Will it Also Be a New You?

Welcome to 2012! What will you do this year to make yourself healthy and beautiful inside and out?

Resolutions are notoriously difficult to make and keep. This year make a resolution you’ll never regret – resolve to achieve and maintain self-confidence through keeping good health and beauty routines. Feelings about ourselves determine how we perceive our lives, and in turn, determine how others see us. Caring for yourself properly, from the outside in, and from the inside out, can make huge changes in your overall well-being. This year resolve to increase your self-confidence by taking care of YOU. You’re worth it.

Don’t go through 2012 feeling less than your best! We are experts, and we’re eager to help you take a holistic approach to your well-being. We believe in a multifaceted approach that includes looking at a person’s mind, body, and spirit for areas of improvement. You can also make small changes every day in your current habits to get going. This includes getting better quality sleep, exercising more, and making changes in your diet to kick start weight loss. When you’ve given attention to the inside, you’re ready to get started on the outside. Rejuvalife can help you with both. We’re proud to offer a variety of services to help you meet your goals, whether they be stress managment, weight loss, facial rejuvenation, or non-surgical body contouring, the experts at Rejuvalife are ready to help.

What’s New at Rejuvalife for 2012

Natural Breast Augmentation + BodyJet™ Liposuction
Getting the breast shape you desire without invasive surgery or using saline or silicone implants is now a viable option. Natural Breast Augmentation uses your own fat cells to create natural looking breasts with increased volume. The process is two-fold. Using a gentle saline solution, fat cells are harvested from the thighs, hips, or abdomen then used to sculpt breasts. You’ll be able to go up one to two cup sizes! Call our office for more details on this exciting new procedure, 310.276.4494.

Xeomin®
We are proud to announce the addition of FDA approved Xeomin®, a new additive-free formulation of Botulinum Toxin Type A, the same active ingredient found in Botox® and Dysport®.  As an elite office, Rejuvalife is offering special introductory pricing for Xeomin at $7.50 per unit all through the month of January. Cost-effective and FDA-approved, Xeomin® is a natural and equally effective BOTOX® alternative.

Stay in the Know
Follow Rejuvalife on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates and tips on health and beauty topics and the Youtube channel for in-depth answers to your health questions by Dr. Berger.

Join Dr. Berger on his BlogTalk Radio show for instant answers to your questions. The next radio show is January 24 at 4:30pm and the theme is Low Testosterone Levels. Call the Rejuvalife office at 310.276.4494 to reserve your spot on the show to get answers.

All of us at Rejuvalife would like to wish you a happy and healthy New Year!

Beat the High Cost of Traditional Liposuction

Liposuction has quickly become one of the most common procedures for fat removal and body sculpting, but the typical costs can make it too expensive for most to consider as a reasonable option. According the the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, the national average surgeon fee for liposuction in 2010 averaged $2,884. As you can see from the following chart from liposuction.com, the costs of traditional liposuction can be astronomical, even on the lower end of the price range.

A large part of the cost associated with traditional liposuction comes from the use of general anesthesia and the use of surgery. There can be additional costs for the use of surgical suites, supplies, testing, medication, and post-procedure treatments.

By cutting out the use of surgery and general anesthesia, Rejuvalife is able to offer the most affordable prices for our Advanced Liposuction procedures, including Liposculpture, Smartlipo™ and BodyJet™.  No matter what area on your body you choose, you will pay as little as $995 per area with our special deals.  With financing options available, patients can pay as little as $95 per month for their procedure.

The price isn’t the only difference between advanced and traditional liposuction. Our advanced, minimally-invasive, non-surgical procedures use only local anesthetic, and produce incredible results that are visible nearly instantly, without the risks, discomfort, or downtime associated with traditional liposuction and general anesthesia. There are no stitches, no unsightly scars, less bruising, and less swelling. Patients walk in and walk out just before and immediately after their procedures, and can resume their normal routine as soon as the next day.

If you would like to learn more about your advanced liposuction options, please visit our website or call (310)276-4494.

The Risks of Mid-Section Fat (Besides the Muffintop)

Let’s be honest. Most of us would love to lose an extra inch or two around our midsections. How nice it would be to fit into those jeans from college without having to suck in, or show off a slim, sexy body at the beach. But there may be an even more compelling reason to get rid of that stubborn belly fat once and for all. Research is now showing that fat specifically around the midsection or waist is a major risk factor for Type II Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Stroke, some forms of cancer, and even Dementia. We all know that obesity can dramatically increases risk factors for these diseases and more, but excess belly fat may also be a warning sign for mildly overweight people, or even people of an otherwise healthy physique and appropriate weight.

Studies have shown that excess midsection fat is strongly associated with greater resistance to insulin.  In insulin resistant people, muscle, fat and liver cells do not use the insulin effectively, so the pancreas tries to compensate by producing more insulin. If the pancreas cannot keep up with the body’s need for insulin, excess levels of glucose will build up, leading to Diabetes. Insulin resistant people also have excessively high levels of insulin in their bloodstream, which leads to inflammation. Inflammation itself has recently gained attention as a direct cause of a staggering number of diseases and health conditions.

The obvious contributor to excess stomach fat is poor lifestyle choices. A diet consisting of high fat, high sugar, processed and otherwise nutritionally lacking food, combined with a lack of exercise, and excessive drinking will all help you pack on those pounds.

Research is supporting the idea that greater life stress may be the other major contributor to excess stomach fat. In particular, chronic stress that is associated with hopelessness, helplessness, or a feeling of defeat is associated with excess production of the stress hormone cortisol. When you have chronically high cortisol levels, the body craves carbohydrates and fats, and the extra calories tend to head right for the midsection. A recent study has also show that lean women in particular may be more prone to develop stomach fat in response to stress.

Another major factor for retaining midsection fat is change in hormonal balance, due to aging or as a result of other conditions. For women, changes in estrogen levels have a particularly strong impact on retaining stomach fat. As estrogen levels change with age, fat goes to the abdominals instead of to the hips and thighs, where it was previously needed for reproductive support.

Rejuvalife is here to help support the total health and wellbeing of our patients, and assist them in acheiving their health, weight loss and aesthetic goals. We offer comprehensive fitness and nutrition programs to promote overall healthy lifestyle, as well as medically supervised weight loss programs. Rejuvalife is on the cutting edge of non-surgical advanced liposuction procedures, to remove excess body fat in the abdominals and other problem areas directly. We also offer Hormone Replacement Therapy to return your hormonal levels to their optimal concentration and fight the effects of aging.

Fat Transfer – it’s hot!

Whether placed in the face, hands, the buttocks or used instead of implants for breast augmentation, transferring your own fat from places you don’t want it, to places you do want it, our “state-of the-art” technologies and methods get you the results you are looking for at Rejuvalife.

Fat transfer, often called fat transplantation, fat injecting or microlipoinjection, has fabulous application for smoothing and repairing aging hands, plumping facial wrinkles and lifting saggy cheeks, creating more curvaceous buttocks, and enlarging breasts.

Though it’s new to many, fat transfer is actually quite old. In 1893, German doctor Franz Neuber took a small bit of upper-arm fat to rebuild the face of a patient who had a pit in her cheek, and in 1895 the first breast augmentation was performed by Dr. Karl Czerny with fat from the patient’s lower back. We’re already performing the latest fat transfer procedures using the Body Jet , which gets the best fat from the patient, is fast and has minimal downtime.

Think about it—would you prefer your own fat—a substance from your body that your body will not reject—to rejuvenate your face, breasts, buttocks and hands or artificially-produced substitutes? Of course, the answer is an easy one.

As far back as 1998, Dr. Robert Alexander, a faculty member of the Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center, in San Antonio, TX conducted a fat transfer study that was quite encouraging. In his trial, 70 women from 21-45 years of age had fat transfer to their breasts. Although there were concerns that patients might develop microcalcification (tiny specks of mineral deposits), only 3% of the women developed them—no more than with any other breast augmentation procedure.  The most recent studies continue to show fat as a viable alternative to implants and dermal fillers.

The biggest concerns about using fat instead of implants and fillers is the question of how much fat the body will “keep”, i.e., that will remain over time and not reabsorbed by the body. In Alexander’s study, approximately 60-75% of the transferred fat volumes were retained after the transfer. Considering that fat injections and transfers are permanent, compared with an implant that will eventually have to be replaced, and that most dermal fillers (Juvederm, Restylane, etc) used in the face and hands last a maximum of a year, this is a viable alternative!

In our practice, our new Body Jet Advanced-Lipo gives us the ability to use the Body Jet to harvest fat in near perfect condition for use in Fat Transfer procedures. For one, this kind of liposuction is safer, more precise and causes very little discomfort or downtime for our patients. It can be done in conjunction with other skin tightening treatments such as SmartLipo, although most of our patients find that their skin is left in excellent condition post-procedure with Body Jet alone. Also, we can use the extracted fat within minutes in a Fat Transfer treatment to restore volume to the face and/or hands, if desired.

Ask Dr. Berger – What is “Fat Transfer”?

I was explaining our new Body-Jet procedure to a patient last week, and how one of the great things about the Body-Jet Liposculpture procedure was the ability to use the Body-Jet to harvest fat in near perfect condition for use in Fat Transfer procedures. The patient asked me why she would need or want to transfer fat – GOOD QUESTION!  I’ve posted the answer I gave her as the subject of my latest video:

If you have any further questions on this, or any other procedure or topic, feel free to post them here, on our Facebook page, or give the office a call at 877-REJUVMD.

Thanks for reading,

Andre Berger, M.D.

The Body-Jet is Here!

I talked recently about the newest procedure at Rejuvalife, and now that I’ve been performing the procedure for a few weeks, I’m even more excited that it’s available, and even more so that it’s here at Rejuvalife. Its safer, and more precise, with very little discomfort or downtime for the patient. It can be done in conjunction with other skin tightening treatments such as SmartLipo, though the skin is left in excellent condition post-procedure with Body-Jet alone! Also, we can use the extracted fat within minutes in a Fat Transfer treatment to restore volume to the face and/or hands, in desired.

I talk about the benefits and advantages of Body-Jet over other liposculpture methods in the video below, and there are some amazing before and after photos, too.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions, please leave a comment on the blog or give us a call – 800-REJUVMD.

Andre Berger, M.D.

The Wave of the Future in Liposculpture

Body-Jet Water Assisted Lipo offers extraordinary results with less bruising, swelling and discomfort and requires minimal downtime!

I’m returning to the office this week after my extraordinary trip to China, (pictures coming soon!) and I’m very excited to get back to work because we’ve got an incredible, BRAND NEW liposculpture procedure available now at Rejuvalife, and I’m the very first physician in Beverly Hills to offer it. It’s called Body-Jet, and it’s the newest technology and highest standard liposculpture procedure in existence. It was recently launched in the U.S.  and it is sure to become very popular because of its many benefits over its predecessors.

Unlike traditional liposuction, where a tumescent solution is injected into the tissue during the procedure, the Body-Jet uses WATER which loosens the structure of the fat tissue so it can be removed. Water is continually added and almost immediately aspirated. This method, called Water Assisted Lipo (WAL) produces less swelling and bruising from the procedure, and requires only a local anesthetic, so it’s safer than methods that require full sedation. Consequently the recovery time is very minimal, and you will see results in hours, not days or weeks like other methods.

The instrument, or cannula, used in the Body-Jet procedure is much smaller than those used in other methods. This lets me truly sculpt the areas, offering remarkable results for the abdomen and thighs, but it also allows me to do the procedure on smaller, harder to handle areas, like the lower back, “bra bulge” area, and under the chin. (Some other methods can tackle those areas, too, but not to the same fine degree as with Body-Jet.)

One thing that truly sets Body-Jet apart, is its far superior fat harvesting capability.  What this means is that when I remove the fat during the liposculpture process, the fat removed is in near perfect condition for use in Fat Transfer procedures – where I inject fat into areas of the skin that have become depleted, such as the face or hands.  Previously, the fat harvested would have to undergo purification processes before it would be viable for Fat Transfer, but because of the water used in Body-Jet, all of those processes are not necessary.

If you’re interested in learning more about this new type of liposculpture, I’ll be posting before and after photos of my Body-Jet patients soon, and a video showing how quick and easy the procedure is, and how great you can look in just a few hours!

Thanks for reading,

Andre Berger, M.D.