The search for eternal beauty, good health and indeed eternal life reaches a climax each year in Monaco where thousands gather for the Anti Aging & Medicine World Congress.
It is no secret that Monaco has the highest concentration of multi-millionaires and billionaires in the world. And once you are as rich as Croesus it is beauty, good health and a long life that become the Holy Grail.
Olga Taran, Chief Editor of HelloMonaco among the maze of experts in the Congress talked to Rita Rakus who stood out for speaking with authority on what the future holds and what cutting edge treatments are worthy of your attention.
Dr Rita Rakus has a practice located in London’s prestigious Knightsbridge district, opposite Harrods. Her’s is one of the world’s leading cosmetic clinics with award-winning expertise in lip enhancement, non surgical facelifting, facial rejuvenation and body contouring. Twenty-five years in practice, and Rakus shows no signs of slowing – partly due to taking her own advice. The ‘London Lip Queen’ has more than 20,000 treatments to her name, and she’s in constant pursuit of newer, more avant-garde ways to perfect her patients’ looks and good health.
HelloMonaco: Welcome to the Conference on Anti-Aging. I see since the last conference you are as focused as a Grand Prix racer, planning opening up new clinics and dreaming up new products. What are you excited about this year? Please tell us about all the latest breakthroughs.
Rita Rakus: Last year I gave a lecture about NAD Plus. We naturally have NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) in our bodies. After about age 30 to 40 it decreases rapidly. The latest development in anti-aging treatments flows from a study in 2013 when two Harvard professors turned the equivalent of a 60-year-old mouse into a 30-year-old mouse with an NAD infusion. That’s how NAD got onto the world stage.
There is the NAD Plus drip, of course, which I have already mentioned briefly. The new breakthrough which I just researched in California, in meeting with Professor Valter Longo, is in fasting with the ProLon diet – the health community feel he could well be nominated for a prestigious prize at the Nobel level for his scientific work on fasting. Fasting has been around for thousands of years. The breakthrough here is the application of real science to it. The Professor has developed a box with a perfect combination of natural ingredients to accompany your fast. You fast for three months of the year each year. The results are two-fold. There is a significant boost to your immune system and there is a noticeable reduction in inflammation. Research is showing that aging results from inflammation and particularly of inflammation to the brain.
There is also an application of ProLon fasting to cancer victims, combined with a specially modified Chemo therapy that is less aggressive (where you do not lose your hair). There has been a major study and application in Italy with breast cancer victims. The study shows fewer recurrences of cancers. I attended a conference with the Buck Institute in California – an independent biomedical research institute that researches aging and age-related disease. Their mission is to extend the healthy years of life. The clear conclusions at the end of two days were that NAD Plus and Fasting are the revolutionary powerful breakthroughs at the top of the list.
HelloMonaco: And in addition to these breakthrough machine technologies what else excites you?
Rita Rakus:This year there is breakthrough technology an NGO from Prague for which I have been asked to be a global ambassador. They are the largest private machine company in the world. They work in cardiology and cosmetics among many other things. They are using MRI scan technology for the first time in cosmetics. They have two new machines. One of them gives you 20000 crunches in half an hour. This is the first machine to build up muscle by 19% to 20% after four treatments and to melt fat by over 20%. You can also use it to treat your bottom. As you know there have been a lot of medical catastrophes around the world with people being injected with silicone and badly executed but-lifts. This machine can be applied to your bottom and will give you the equivalent of 20.000 contractions in each of four sessions to lift your bottom. You can of course go to the gym and do squats. You will develop muscle, it is true, but also at the same time in areas you don’t want extra muscle.
Next year they are planning applicators for the rest of the body including the arms and legs. What is even more exciting is that it can be applied to the face. There are successes with existing technologies lifting the skin in the face. With this new technology you can tighten the muscle under the skin as well and this is better than a face lift. So this is the exciting Stage 2 for applications of this technology. There is also a sister machine using this MRI technology. It does 11000 pelvic floor “Kegels” in half an hour.
HelloMonaco: Is there pain during or after the treatment and do people have discomfort and difficulty walking out of the clinics afterwards?
Rita Rakus: There is no pain. The only thing that hurts is your wallet. (laughing)
HelloMonaco: Would you be able to do 11000 normally in your whole life-time?! How many of these half-hour sessions in a full program?
Rita Rakus: There are steps. A program consists of 6 half-hour sessions. It achieves not only tightening but there is a 75% to 80% success rate at solving incontinence problems. Many women nowadays are having to wear pads during the night. This new treatment is revolutionary. In our first implementations of this machine in our clinic we were amazed at the impact on 6 women we treated who had major problems – including having real difficulty walking. These successes confirmed that the technology is revolutionary.
HelloMonaco: There are some extravagant claims from the anti-aging community – for instance that we are nearing being able to live forever. What is the truth?
Rita Rakus: We are careful to align with real science, consulting with Professors who are in the running to be nominated for distinguished prizes. It is important to avoid the charlatans. There is a major shift to emphasizing Health-Span over Life-Span. If a maximum life-span without genetic modification is 120 years then the push is for a high quality of life through our 80s and 90s and starting to think beyond age 100 – it’s all about Health-Span. And it goes well beyond avoiding unnecessary diseases that we have discovered result from asbestos and smoking for example. In wealthy countries we see so much animal protein. High animal protein diets are being promoted and are prevalent, also in wealthy circles.
There is still lack of knowledge about the dangers of barbecuing and eating burnt meat. High protein diets unfortunately are linked to accelerated aging. It’s important to eat non-animal protein. Professor Valter Longo grew up in a poor part of Italy near Genoa. But looking back he feels he was lucky that his family could only afford beans. There is knowledge available nowadays that can help everyone in society. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to organize a fast for example (laughter about saving money on food).
HelloMonaco: You probably already have an idea of what we are going to hear about at the next anti-aging conference a year from now. What do you see in your crystal ball?
Rita Rakus: I’m very lucky to have access to breakthrough research from scientists in the anti-aging field that are lining up to be nominated for the equivalent of Nobel Prizes. Take cloning and stem cells, in particular stem cells. Some parents of children being born nowadays are aware enough of stem cells to be saving their umbilical cords. But what about us older people. The advances here are that they can take our older stem cells and rejuvenate them with science.
This is not yet universally available and is expensive. But at my tender 69 years I have lost cartilage in my knee and I do get a little more tired as the years advance. But I am not putting my hand up for a replacement knee; rather I will try this new stem cell technique together with an intravenous drip to boost my overall system. They will take my stem cells and reengineer them and then re-inject them into my knee. It promises an immediate boost and then a calmer period while there is rapid growth of the cells going on. The prognosis is a radical improvement in my knee after six months. I’m reacquainting myself with all my high heels that I have stored away and by Autumn\Winter this year just come and see me wearing my heels and my Jimmy Choo shoes.
Olga Taran interviewed Rita Rakus at the 17th edition of the Anti Aging & Medicine World Congress – AMWC which took place on April 4-6, 2019. Under the scientific supervision of the World Society of Interdisciplinary Anti-Aging Medicine (WOSIAM), the conference featured a highly interactive, stimulating and multidisciplinary program and provided the ideal forum to stimulate ideas, educate and share expertise.
Rita Rakus joined her distinguished colleagues, medical experts and scientists on the faculty who lecture to the over 10.000 participants coming from more than 120 countries. Rita Rakus is also one of the ambassadors of the leading international companies, who showcased on the 5-floor exhibition area with their latest products, technologies and services.
