In the Palm Springs, California area, there is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization called Desert Best Friend’s Closet. It has no physical facilities and only three team members but during their first year, the 2008-2009 fiscal year, they provided the right clothing for 296 adults and 487 children, at no cost to those recipients.
They rely on donations of clothing, help, and money. They do not serve their community directly, but donate the clothing they collect to local charities or government agencies. They began by finding fashionable prom gowns for high school girls who could not afford to buy their own.
“Every girl […]
Obesity has been increasing in Western countries for many years and is getting plenty of press coverage. Some cosmetic surgeons are offering gastric bypass surgery for those who cannot lose excess weight through diet and exercise. It is a way to reduce stomach size so that you feel full quickly and cannot eat more. We do not currently offer that but would not rule it out for the future.
If you want to assess your own weight, one way to do it is by calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI (also called Body Mass Indicator) was developed by a […]
The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS) is planning to launch a new magazine, called the New You Magazine, at the end of this year. It will be the official magazine of the AACS and will be on sale to the public. Its mission is to promote cosmetic surgery by disseminating correct information about it.
“We are going to educate the public about cosmetic surgery so that they will feel informed and comfortable enough to make a decision,” states the magazine editor, J.P. Faber. “Our goal is to remove the most common fears surrounding cosmetic surgery – as well as making […]
One Margaret Degand, M.D. has been a plastic surgeon in Petionville, Haiti for years, offering such cosmetic procedures as breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, and liposuction to the Haitian upper class. The earthquake collapsed two big buildings near her clinic while she was working and people ran to her door with head injuries, broken limbs, and other urgent needs.
She got to work immediately.
“They were really badly wounded because they were big buildings with lots of cement. Really, I have never seen so many traumatized patients,” she said. “They had scalp wounds. They were bleeding. One patient had four or five lesions.”
During the […]
Recent news reports are saying that the public is giving cosmetic surgery a green light these days. The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS) did a survey of people’s attitudes to it and released the results yesterday.
They found that 71 percent of survey participants think that society has become less judgmental about it than it was five years ago. Of those, 62 percent even said that they felt easier about having cosmetic surgery because of this change in social attitudes.
“This is a confirmation of what many of us have felt for a long time – that cosmetic surgery has become […]
A company called Zeltiq™ Aesthetics was founded in 2005 to develop non-invasive ways of removing fat from the body. Zeltiq is based on California. They have patented a method called Cryolipolysis™ that uses controlled cooling to cause the death of targeted fat cells. They are marketing it as a non-invasive alternative to Liposuction, requiring no incisions, stitches, or anesthetic.
According to a news report from yesterday, Cryolipolysis was conceived when someone noticed that children who suck on popsicles a lot develop cheek dimples. It was thought that fatty tissue was lost from the cheeks because of the cold popsicles being in […]
Last Thursday, this space discussed the use of stem cells in tissue rebuilding, with a liposuction procedure to obtain your own stem cells. For about ten years now, plastic surgeons have been working on ways to extract and use a person’s adult stem cells — both for repairing tissue after a disfiguring accident or a surgery like mastectomy, and for cosmetic body enhancement.
In Boca Raton yesterday, a breast enlargement was performed without using breast implants. Instead, fat was taken from the woman’s hips and thighs using tumescent liposuction and the adult stem cells were extracted from it. They were processed […]
Taiwan cosmetic surgeons have been doing very well through medical tourism in recent years. Their patients have been mostly hopping over the Taiwan Strait from mainland China. The secretary-general of the Kaohsiung Aesthetic Medical Tourism Promotion Association, one Chen Chun-ting, says.
“The demand from China is much higher than what we’d expected, and the visitors just keep coming in. As China gets richer, more and more people are paying attention to their appearance and are willing to spend money in this area.”
Taiwan also has a President who is more friendly towards mainland China, President Ma Ying-jeou, who took office in 2008. […]
If you have liposuction and fat cells are removed from your body, those cells can be recycled. They can be grafted or injected to another part of the body where more fat is wanted or needed. When that is done using the correct techniques, the stem cells in the fatty tissue can provide improved healing after an injury or disfiguration. An example is breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.
What are Stem Cells?
There are two types of stem cells in mammals:
Embryonic stem cells
Adult stem cells
Use of embryonic stem cells is controversial, potentially illegal, and perhaps unnecessary in any case. All research on […]
The Harley Medical Group is a chain of cosmetic surgery clinics in the U.K. Recently their London facilities have been reporting that more women have been asking for dermal filler treatments in their feet.
This Foot Filler procedure began in 2008 among women who came for BOTOX® Cosmetic treatments and also asked for something to make their feet more comfortable in high heels. When you wear high heels all day at work, your feet can become sore and tired, especially if your job requires much standing or walking. During 2009, many more women asked for filler injections in their feet rather […]
