Benefits of Thiogamma (Alpha-lipoic acid)

What is α-lipoic acid? (Thiogamma)
Alpha-lipoic acid is an essential substance in the production of the body's energy.
It is also 400 times more of antioxidative activity than vitamin C,E.
It has an excellent effect on whitening, elasticity, energy consumption and appetite supression.
It decreases body weight.
It regenerates glutathione production and thus amplifies glutathione effects.

Characteristics Of Thiogamma Injection
Administered via infusion runnin for at least 30 minutes
The injection can have excellent effect with dietary therapy, exercise.

Who Needs Thiogamma Injection?
For those who require:
- Brightening of skin color as injection tones up the entire face
- Increases skin elasticity and decreases wrinkles
- Feeling less exhausted after daily activity
- Activates fat resolving and effectively reduce body fat
- Regulation of blood glucose thereby improving blood sugar profile

Effects Of Thiogamma Injection
Diet
ㆍAnti-obesity Effects
ㆍHeals oedema and cold constitution
ㆍReduces fatty liver
ㆍAppetite suppressant Effects

Anti-oxidation
ㆍIncrease glutathione production
ㆍCure chronic fatigue
ㆍDetoxification effects on heavy metals

Skin Improvements
ㆍWhitening effects
ㆍElasticity improvements
ㆍFlawless skin tone

SLC24A5 Inhibitor II

Does SLC24A5 Gene-Inhibitor really whitens the skin? 

Recently, there has been a new up and coming whitening injection procedure called the SLC24A- Inhibitor. I have seen this product being advertised by several well known aesthetic clinics in the country.

Don't let the complex name confuse you. Putting it simply, what this injection claims to do is that once injected, it will go into your DNA and telling your body to "switch-off" the genetic information that pigments your skin causing a much lighter skin appearance without affecting other pigmented body parts such as your hair, eyes, etc.

Now, this information does sound like too good to be true and honestly as an aesthetic physician, i was very interested to inquire more info bout the product especially before introducing it to my patients.

Here's the information i found out from the manufacturer's website:

Fig.1  "Chief Researcher" in SLC24A5 technology 
 (Picture screen-printed directly from the manufacturer's website)

Information from the Manufacturer's Site : "Swiss Institution of Medical sciences -- Aeskulap Brunnen has once again invented the most powerful skin whitening formulations which is the safest and most powerful in the world – SLC24A5 Inhibitor, which disables the pigmentation gene in the body."

Fig 2.  Dark Zebra Fish claimed to turn white after SLC24A5 Inhibitor Injection
 (A Picture posted on the Manufacturer's Website)

My first instinct was that of amazement. I thought to myself, if scientific research on genetics is already this advanced, we are days away from injectable drugs that can "turn-off" genes for cancer and various auto-immune disease, certainly skin-whitening would not be the number one priority medical application for such advanced genetic engineering technology.

So, my curiosity got me to the path of finding the full article of that "Zebra Fish Research" (Fig.2) that claims to whiten the color of a fish after several injections of this substance.

When i couldn't find this suggested article by "Prof Jason Mest" (Fig.1) through the conventional medical literature search engine, i tried finding the article through the "Aeskulap Brunnen Institution of Medical Research." I thought, this is such a huge research and since "Prof. Mest" is the lead scientist in that particular institute, surely i could find a full-text paper of this calibre easily on that site.

To my surprise, there is no such "Aeskulap Brunnen Institution of Medical Research" in Switzerland as the manufacturer suggested. There is, however, an Aeskulap Klinik http://www.aeskulap-klinik.ch/ (Its a big Clinic in the city of Brunen, Switzerland, not a medical research institute). I tried inquiring if this SLC24A5 Gene Inhibitor therapy is even offered there and at this point i was not surprised anymore that there isn't such therapy or even anything similar to such thing existed in Aeskulap Klinik !

Since the manufacturer also claimed that "Professor Mest" is a Professor in Genetic at the University of Philadelphia Medical School, i thought if this person was real, someone of his caliber would definitely be listed as a faculty in the university website, right?
http://www.med.upenn.edu/faculty.shtml,
and again, not surprisingly, there's not a known professor in that university ever existed.


So, who is James Mest really? Is the research even valid? or does the "zebra fish" article even exist?

I finally located the original article that has been misconstrued in the manufacturer's website and here's what i found out:

Fig. 3: The Original /Real Research Article : www.sciencemag.org

The original/ real article (Fig.3) is a fully valid article entitled "SLC24A5 a Putative Cation Exchanger, Affects Pigmentation in Zebra Fish and Humans."

To my current knowledge, this article was published in magazine called "Science" Vol 310, 16 Decemer 2005 Issue (Note: Although "Science" magazine is an informative and trustworthy scientific journalism, however it is not categorized as a peer-reviewed medical journal).

Basically what the real article (Fig. 3) (explained by the abstract in Fig.3, i have highlighted the important bits of information for easier understanding of the real article) is saying is that  through this research, they have possibly identified the source of different skin colorations in Zebra Fish (Fig.4), so it's not that lighter colored fish turned dark to light as a result of the injection  as the caption in Fig.2 suggested. But that picture is basically pictures of 2 different variants of Zebra Fish that are being compared and studied/ Based on comparing these 2 different colored fish, the researchers found out that the SLC2A45 gene in this particular type of fish may have an important role in determining how one fish gets to be a lighter color than the other. 

The article suggested that the human genes is somewhat similar to that of Zebra Fish and therefore although this research was primarily on Zebra Fish, the result that they found can very well be applied to humans as well.

 Fig 4: Pictures of 2 Different Variants of Zebra Fish

As for "Jason Mest," as you can see in Fig. 3, he actually does really exist (to my surprise) and in fact one of the main researchers in the study from Dept of Pathology in Jake Gilden Cancer Research Institute (as the real article suggested) and not an aesthetic researcher/professor in the non-existant  biomedical institute in Switzerland or part of the faculty in the University of Philadelphia.

Now, before you decide on dropping on thousands of dollars and getting daily injection for 2-4 weeks (the recommended dosage by the manufacturer is: daily or every other day for a total of 36 vials injection in the first cycle to be injected into the muscle/vein) of this "high-tech" genetic engineering whitening solution is not only to question about is efficacy, but also more importantly think about its safety!

 

Because as a physician, i would be having a difficult time in assuring the safety (or let alone the efficacy) of a product whose primary ingredient is rather questionable.

Therefore, the next time you see amazing before/after pictures (Fig.5) in a magazine or waiting lounge of a swanky place somewhere (as I have seen these very sets of pictures being used to advertise this injection product to the general public in several well-known beauty magazines and even sadly endorsed by a medical specialist!), I encourage you to think again and this time more critically and bear in mind these 3 important principles:

1.  If the results seem to good to be true -> they probably are, and
2. If the technology seems to be too advanced from where are now, it probably is ! 
and if you're still in doubt,
3. Ask your doctor a detailed information about the procedure you're interested in, it's your right to know and remember that it is OK to ask critical questions!

Articel courtesy of Maharis Clinic:


 http://maharisclinic.blogspot.com/2011/05/does-slc24a5-gene-inhibitor-really.html)

 
 

The Beauty of Bar Codes - Possible Meddling of Products

All original products used for injections and for oral consumption and for topical use, should portray their bar codes clearly. If they are not present, they are not original. No two different products will bear identical numbers.

In this piece, we will summarize the popular brands. They have not all been exhausted because we only include the information on products we can get hold of ourselves. If you may care to submit photos of bar codes on other products, we welcome your contributions and will add them to the list. We are sure the packagers will scramble to have the boxes changed to incorporate new bar code numbers, but we have these already recorded here. Therefore, any future changes will render them useless because their ploy has been exposed and what is revealed here can be kept for posterity.


Codes for verification can be found below:
EAN Codes
Italian Pharmacodes
German Pharmaceuticals


Readers may verify themselves that what is written below is accurate by doing the necessary checks themselves. Readers may also find this information disturbing :

Product	Claimed Origin	Bar Code	Country of Origin	Original or Fake
Laroscorbine Platinium Vit C+ Collagen	France	3421357	France	Identical product as Laroscorbine, therefore this number is a Fake Number
Sentien Cell	UK	5130482 991882773	Does Not Exist Voucher codes	Fake Number
Vitacicol Forte P3000	USA	9761187610318	Does Not Exist	Fake Number
Cell Roma	Italy	No Number	Does Not Exist	No Number
Oxydermal	Germany	No Number	Does Not Exist	No Number
Prolene	Germany	No Number	Does Not Exist	No Number
Kojic Acid	Japan	9987164432453332	Voucher Codes	Fake Number
Tationil Bayer	Italy	No Number	Does Not Exist	Fake Number
Vitacicol (Green Box)	USA	8993156006120	Indonesia	Fake Number
Biome		5997001311783	Hungary	Fake Number
NC24	Japan	2987174436423	Internal use	Fake Number
Lucchini	Switzerland	No Number	Does Not Exist	No Number
MF3 HP 230mg	Switzerland	8360926794301	Italy	Fake Number
MF3 Advance Formula	Switzerland	5232918799527	Does Not Exist	Fake Number (number does not exist but this product is registered in Malaysia)

Product	Claimed Origin	Bar Code	Country of Origin	Original or Fake
Tathion 500	South Korea	8806425034543	South Korea	Original
Vit C Bayer (Laroscorbine)	France	3421357	France	Original
Gerovital	Romania	594470705002141	Romania	Original
Lipostabil	Germany	PZN 3352900	German Pharmaceuticals	Original
Wiedemann Homookomplex	Germany	PZN 0507265	German Pharmaceuticals	Original
Wiedemann Vit B12	Germany	PZN 2260834	German Pharmaceuticals	Original
Melsmon (White box)	Japan	4987546000014	Japan	Original
Tationil Teofarma	Italy	A 026185049	Italian Pharma	Original
Mita C	Japan	4987154434423	Japan	Original

Beauty Injectables in Malaysia-What is Fake and What is Original- Their Origins

Beauty injections readily available in Malaysia have made the users susceptible by misleading them into purchasing products which are repacked & relabelled as something in which they are not.


This industry was started about 5-8 years ago when at the time original products were brought in from overseas. At the beginning the suppliers were happy. But increasingly, due to competition from increasing number of suppliers, the prices of the products dropped to a worrying level after a while. 

They realised that having the same items that other suppliers had would cut into their profit because customers had a choice. Thus some creative suppliers have taken the route of importing the same products, removing the labels and applying new labels making bold claims purportedly having better ingredients eg vitamin C + collagen instead of just the vitamin C content. Thus, individuals who thought that these products were better (because they contained collagen) would obviously switch to the supposedly 'better' & more expensive ones. And the supplier who created this had now created a new market of the same item but by a different name, and in a single swipe, had succeeded in protecting its business interests.

Some, being more creative and wanting to increase their profits even more, imported lesser quality products from China, Vietnam, cambodia, India & Taiwan since they were far cheaper alternatives compared to European originals, and removed these items from the original packaging and applied new labels/boxes/holograms created wholly in Malaysia to make them look original (holograms can easily be created by specialised printing facilities in Malaysia). 

A few, still not content with this resorted to labelling them as a new product and sometimes 'borrowed' well known brand names (eg Laroscorbine Platinium Roche, NC24 or Tationil Bayer) or with totally new brands which had not existed prior to that & purportedly infused with novel ingredients, so they will not have any competition.  So such products have historically come into existence in this manner described above. Some novel ingredients said to exist in these injectables are tranexamic acid, kojic acid and alpha lipoic acid (present in a product called Biome).

Little do they know that such ingredients CANNOT be injected into the vein directly. Tranexamic acid for instance cannot be injected into a vein because it will promote blood clot (usually only prescribed to those with uncontrolled bleeding eg heavy menses) which may lead to whats termed hypercoagulability disorders which may in turn result in DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) or even potentially fatal lung complication PE (Pulmonay Embolism), Kojic acid will cause convulsion if done the same way and it has a propensity to cause embryo, liver and kidney toxicity and the possibility of mutagenicity (which will lead to cancer) and is currently being banned as a cosmetic ingredient in Japan, Korea and Switzerland, Alpha lipoic acid if injected into the bloodstream will aggravate heart problems because it raises the homocystein levels. 

What is actually present in these products are usually none other than glutathione & vitamin C. Some will utilise Gerovital H3 which is relabelled as something else such as Sentien Cell for example. (PS: Kojic acid and tranexamic acid does have anti-pigmentation effects if applied topically through the skin, but they are not to be injected into the vein which can cause deleterious effects). Any beneficial effects claimed to be of benefit derived from such repacked/relabelled products can be wholly attributed to what's called a placebo effect.



It has to be said that this trend, of relabelling dubios products to make them look legitimate is not a problem exclusive to Malaysia. This trend even started much earlier on in Indonesia (Malaysia lagged behind Indonesia in this matter) and they produced similar products with different brands such as Oxydermal, MJ range of whitening injections such as MJ gold, MJ Platinium & MJ Titanium, Rodotex, Miracle Rose, various Heel (non-original products) as well as others. There are also companies in Taiwan doing the same such as so called Strong Laennac which was present in the market some time ago as well as Lipostabil 303 Forte.


Meanwhile, the lay person who has no medical background does not know any better. And because of this, they are being taken advantage of. (No one has the time to send the products to a lab to have the contents of these injectables checked and furthermore Malaysians are very trusting of silver-tongued sales people who sometimes genuinely do not know that the products they carry in their inventory are not even original!).


In the current market there are also products claiming to be of sheep placenta in origin but in actual fact they contain swine/porcine placenta.  Swine is an alternative word for porcine or pig or hog. Placenta compositum from Heel for example is a mixture of various placentas including swine/porcine placenta. There are also sheep placentas which are being marketed as fish placenta. The reason for not including this vital information is obvious.


There are various other issues in which we will write at another time specific to various products that may have surfaced recently ( such as Biome, Biome + DNA, Biocell, NC24, Cell Roma, Tranexamic Acid, Cell Revi, Oxydermal, Rodotex etc) so that users understand what they are getting themselves into & what the risks are of using such products. We shall also write regarding collagen fillers at a later date.

Aesthetic Products & Off Label Use

Many of the injectable products used for aesthetic effects are unregistered in Malaysia.


This is because the great number of these are not originally prescribed for aesthetic use in the first place. Only through experimentation & novel applications at some clinics in some parts of the world did we discover that these products do have these 'side' uses. These 'side' uses are termed 'off label' because they are not labelled as their indicated use. These 'off label' applications became popular amongst the pioneer users & practitioners. Only much later did the world discover these novel applications & uses.


For example, Lipostabil being registered in Germany is indicated for the treatment of high cholesterol and to prevent fat embolism. It is not intended for fat melting purposes. In the case of Lipostabil, the fat melting effect (also termed 'lipo-dissolve') that may be achieved by Lipostabil has not gone through the whole clinical trials of safety and efficacy other than for its original intended precription. And as such the lack of studies on its efficacy & safety profiling, they are not registrable for other uses.


The same goes with vitamin C injections. These are actually indicated for use in the cases of scurvy or deficiency of vitamin C. However the world discovered that the administration of vitamin C does have an effect on suppressing melanin formation thus resulting in lighter skin tones. Although no formal clinical trials for this effect was ever conducted, the experience of users and its spread through word of mouth eventually gain acceptance to a great number of people. Although some doctors remain skeptical, as they should be because doctors are trained not to accept something which remains outside what is thought to be scientific. Without such clinical trials involving careful monitoring, measuring, documenting and statistically analysing the results whilst removing the placebos and biases, these uses cannot be included in what is accepted to be scientific, and as such, doctors will remain skeptical as they should.

Placebo Effects - Why Some Users Claim to Experience Better Results with Repacked/Relabelled Products

Placebo effects do play a role as well in individuals testifying that a certain product is more effective or quicker in response when compared to another (when the exact same ingredient are in the ampoules but labelled as something better). 

That is why some users adamantly admit that the 'vitamin C+ collagen' is better than the vitamin C alone (although the are the same). When someone believes in something, the person may actually experience real change. This has always been known in medicine and is a normal physiological response that is tied up to human psychology and belief. 

Another reason is because human evaluation is usually subjective without any proper scientific quantification method. The same effect can be desribed by two different individuals as direct opposites in extreme cases. And if one person is treated by two different ampoules bearing different labels in which the effects is expected to be identical (using two ampoules of the same item but relabelled to make them look different), the same person may claim to obtain better results with one compared to the other.

That is why in a proper clinical trial, the responses are quantified and measured to determine its statistical significance and to determine if those responses came from the placebo effects of individual's belief or from the drug (medicine) itself. (In lay man's words, if someone gives you a glass of water and says that it is from a miraculous source able to heal any disease, and you truly believe in that person, you might just wake up the next morning feeling never felt better!) This is the reason why some still insist that the vitamin C+ collagen is better although they are identical.