Can skin aging be healed?
One of Dr. Sandy Chris Tan’s regulars at Skin Inc. was turning 80 when she noticed a sunken spot between her cheekbone and temple; her skin had atrophied. After a session with Rejuran, a new kind of injectable, that spot not only healed; it recovered a plumpness and smoothness she hasn’t had in decades. She has since had it injected all over her face and her loved ones all swear she now looks like she’s in her 60s. But for her, the best part is that her skin now acts and feels younger, too. “It’s like a new lease on life,” she said.
Not to be confused with tried-and-tested muscle-relaxing neurotoxins and volume-adding fillers, healers “tell your own body to heal itself using your own collagen and elastin,” explains Dr. Tan.
The most popular healers out in the market today either use a combination of vitamins, growth factors and amino acids; harness extracellular vesicles to create paths for communication between cells; or introduce a biocompatible DNA sequence to activate your own fibroblasts, which is how Rejuran works. This then restores skin health by naturally and fundamentally improving the physiological condition of the inner skin. While the debate of whether aging is a disease rages on in the medical community, Rejuran has its origins as a medical treatment.
“The cornerstone of Rejuran is the polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN) lipo nucleotide extracted from salmon DNA, specifically the sperm from their testes,” explains Skin Inc.’s Dr. Windie Villarica, who experienced how it was ethically farmed and extracted at South Korean company PharmaResearch’s headquarters in Gangneung with Dr. Tan.
Dr. Tan explains, “The original use of Rejuran was for people with ulcers and bedsores. It is a medical drug registered and approved to heal wounds until they noticed that the texture of the skin was nice. They have since reformulated it into injectables for the skin.”
“They are not cross-linked; they’re very viscous, soft almost like water — it’s good for hydration without the prospect of embolizing blood vessels,” points out Dr. Villarica, showing me the needle that comes with it: it’s as thin as a baby hair strand.
Healers fill a gap for those who are apprehensive about non-invasive anti-aging treatments. While front-runners like radio frequency are effective in skin tightening,
“Rejuran activates collagen without the same trauma,” Dr. Tan explains. “With other procedures, there's thermal damage. You use controlled thermal damage to cause collagen stimulation and elastin stimulation. This one is called cold rejuvenation. As opposed to thermal rejuvenation, healers rejuvenate the skin without causing the same trauma.”
Dr. Villarica uses healers in combination with lasers. “It’s for patients who have specific skin issues — they have allergies, dry skin, or have very thin or thinning skin. There are men and women in their 30s that like to tan and have an active lifestyle, so they get photoaged. It's for naturally thin areas like the eye and neck area; they are harder to repair.”
There are now four formulations of Rejuran. As Dr. Villarica painlessly injects the PN formula into my under-eye circles and the sensitive, constantly-irritated area around my upper lip, she explains that she uses Rejuran for patients who “want something natural.” While results with neurotoxins and fillers can be as dramatic or as subtle as the injector wants it to be, healers give results in a different way. They restore what you once had; so if you want Kylie Jenner lips or Zoe Kravitz cheekbones or Bella Hadid smoothness and never had them to begin with, healers alone aren’t for you.
Tanning in my teens and twenties means I’m paying for it now in my thirties, and I appreciated the effect of Rejuran as early as the next day. New Year’s Eve festivities and even just a night of bingeing a TV series like The Glory on Netflix is sure to make everything ache. But I didn’t look like it. The redness and itching around my nose is gone, and I even have fewer fine lines around my eyes and lips as the days go by.
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Skin Inc. is at 3/F of Tritan Plaza, Paseo de Magallanes, Makati. Message (0917) 841 5014 for inquiries.
Caption
High Society star Soo Ae is the face of Rejuran.
Skin Inc.’s Dr. Windie Villarica and Dr. Sandy Chris Tan learn how salmon sperm is harvested in PharmaResearch Products headquarters in Gangneung, South Korea.
