Plastic Surgery Playlists: What Doctors Are Rocking Out To In The OR

In a recent article on iEnhance.com, doctors were asked what songs were on their plastic surgery playlists. Below are the outtakes from the article which feature a full list of songs and artists that some of the doctors surveyed shared.



Dr. Raffi Hovsepian

1. Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin
2. Frank Sinatra - My Way
3. Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Garota de Ipanema
4. The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want
5. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

Maurice P. Sherman, MD

1. Neil Diamond - Song Sung Blue, Coming to America, I Am She Said, Love on the Rocks
2. John Denver - Rocky Mountain High, This Old House, Leaving on a Jet Plane
3. Kenny Rogers - Lucille, The Gambler, Coward of the County
4. Willie Nelson - Georgia on My Mind, Don't Let your Sons Grow up to be Cowboys, Angels Flying Too Close to the Ground
5. Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire, A Boy Named Sue, Sunday Sidewalk, Folsom Prison Blues
6. Frank Sinatra - Summer Wind, The Way You Look Tonight, I'll Be Seeing You

Paul Vanek MD, FACS

1. Rick Braum - Body and Soul
2. ZZ Top
3. Sting
4. Chicago
5. Beethoven

Larry H. Pollack MD, FACS

1. Steely Dan - Gaucho
2. Joe Bonamassa - Further On Up The Road
3. Seal - Crazy
4. Van Morrison - Brown-Eyed Girl
5. Keb Mo - Whole Nutha Thang

Michelle Bonness, MD

1. Eva Cassidy - Over The Rainbow, Fields of Gold
2. Andre Bocelli & Laura Pausini - Dare To Live
3. Rush - Trees
4. The Stanley Brothers - Angel Band
5. Frankie Valli - My Eyes Adore You
   
   

Nose Job Complication? Use Honey!

One of the possible complications of a rhinoplasty is a case of sinusitis. But there’s a, uh, sweet cure for it -- honey. Now, plastic surgeons must figure out the best way to spread the stuff inside your schnoz. (Read more about nose job complications.)


(Photo credit: sxc.hu/nkzs)

What’s more, honey in medicine is nothing new -- it has been used since the time of the ancient Egyptians as a natural anti-microbial dressing. Read more.

Back in present time, Canadian researchers, lead by Dr. Joseph G. Marsan at the University of Ottawa, used honey in the lab on the bacteria that cause sinusitis. The problem has always been that super-powerful germs hide inside the nose under a thick covering known as biofilms, which can’t be penetrated by “even the most power anti-microbials,” according to Dr. Marsan.

Plastic Surgery Procedures

Two certain types of honey, Manuka honey from New Zealand and Sidr honey from Yemen, are powerful enough to zap through the biofilm and kill the bacteria. (Read the whole report.)

So will plastic surgery procedures have fewer complications?

The next step: do you sniff, spread, inject, swallow, or hold the honey under your tongue to get it inside your snout? Don’t know yet. Hey, no worries, they’re working on it!

Plastic Surgery Stops Bullies in their Tracks!

When I was in grade school, no self-respecting kid would tolerate a bully, the weakest, whiniest and most puny kids not withstanding.

We weren’t tough guys; it’s just that any boy over the age of oh, 18 months, would get far worse when his dad found out his kid had succumbed to bullies and forked over his lunch money, baseball cap, pocket knife, the family IRA or whatever.

The standing rule was: face up to bullies and fight back, even if there were dozens trying to shake you down.

I think the Father’s Instruction Book had a chapter about one punch on a bully’s nose stopping the lot of them. The one exception about fighting back: if you were in an iron lung, wheelchair or in traction, your punching ability was somewhat restricted, making it understood you might miss the bully’s nose. But you had to fight back. According to The Father’s Instruction Book, there was no shame in fighting back and losing.

But in reality, I never did come across a bully who was put off by one -- or even one dozen -- punches in the nose. I think they became bullies in the first place because they were born without pain receptors. So logic for nine-year-old bullies was simple: “Hey, we can’t feel pain. Let’s just pick on people! So what if they hit us back?”


Your lunch money or your life!
(iynmeyer photo)

However, all of that was before plastic surgery stopped the assaults. In England, a new way of dealing with the problem is by rejuvenating the body parts bullies like to taunt other youngsters about.

Some British surgeons are giving children and teens surgical rejuvenation so that bullies won’t be picking on odd-looking features or making punch-deserving jokes about large noses or ears or small breasts. (Read more.)

(Disclaimer: kids’ lunch money may still be up for grabs, even after plastic surgery!)

Rhinoplasty

*Mr. Douglas McGeorge, head of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS,) recently revealed he had reshaped the nose of one youngster and supplied breast implants for others to stop teasing and bullying. For instance, one younger teen was picked on and bullied at three separate schools, because of an unattractive nose. Her parents were about ready to go “case-o” -- British slang for “going bonkers” -- before hitting on the idea of ponying up 3,500 Pounds (that’s $6121.50 U.S. dollars) for
rhinoplasty. Her parents say the problem was solved.

Breast Implants

Because some bullied teens are still growing, the thoughtful doc has put in expandable breast implants, which help to gradually expand the bosom. (Read about how expandable breast implants work.) Additionally, a nine-year-old in Scotland begged his parents for surgery to rid his face of a mole because school bullies called him “Moley” and beat him up after school because of his appearance. (More about mole removal.)

But the trend is not news. Back in 2006, it was reported that Britain’s National Health Service was springing for cosmetic plastic surgery for bullied youngsters in Scotland. (More.)

What do you think? Will plastic surgery stop U.S. bullies? Or, should we concentrate on pain receptor transplants for bullies?

*In the British Isles, M.D.’s are known as “Mr.”

Artist Rakes in Money with Tattoos on Swine and People

A leading service among plastic surgeons is tattoo removal. It’s known as “labor intensive” because the patients must return to the plastic surgeon anywhere from two to six times and let the doc do erasing work with a laser.

Basically, the cosmetic surgeon zaps the ink in the tat with a laser. (Read more about cosmetic tattoo removal.)

But when a tattoo is considered art -- and fetches a king’s ransom -- you gotta think about leaving it on.

Wim Delvoye, a Belgian artist living in Beijing, China, started by tattooing eight pigs with designs reportedly similar to Louis Vuitton logos. (Animal lovers, chill! The porkers, shown below, were anesthetized!) A few swine were inked with Walt Disney characters.


Artist Wim Delvoye and his four-footed canvases
(Ananova.com photo)

After the oinkers have lived a long and productive life, the pig skins will be sold for $120,000 each. (Can you imagine -- a Louis Vuitton football? What a way to get more chicks into the NFL! Can’t you just hear the girl talk now? “They fumbled a Vuitton Beaubourg in the first quarter and then tried an on-side kick with a Mahina XXL clutch in the 4th!”)
(Read more about the tattooed pigs.)

Tattoo Removal

The following will make tattoo removal experts worldwide cringe, but Wim’s latest project was inking an elaborate tat of the Virgin Mary on the back of Tim Steiner, a 32-year-old Swiss man who is cashing in on his tattoo.

Here’s how: Wim did his usual masterful job and sold the artwork on Tim’s back to a German art collector for a cool $275,000. The cash is split among the art gallery that arranged the sale, Wim and Tim. More.


Tim Steiner, a two-legged canvas
(Paolo Foschini photo)

Then, not unlike the pigs, Tim hopefully goes on living a long and productive life. Now, I know what you’re thinking and that’s not it -- Tim does not -- repeat, NOT -- become a football!!

Plastic Surgeons Verboten

Instead, many decades from now, just before Tim is laid down for a dirt nap, the skin of his back is removed and the Virgin Mary tat becomes the sole property of the art dealer who can sell it if he wishes.

And that’s not all. Contractually, Tim must display his back in public three times yearly to art lovers worldwide.

However, plastic surgeons who know how to remove tattoos are verboten in the shows!

Doctor, Are You a Gamer?

You read it here first!

Last April, we told you about a study of 33 doctors that showed video gamers make good surgeons, plastic surgeons included. It’s because of all the hand-eye coordination that develops.

On the heels of that study comes yet another, this time of 303 laparoscopic surgeons. The testers (doctors, not gamers) recommend that patients ask an important question before any operation:

“Doc, are you a gamer?”


This is not a shooting or driving game but a laparoscopic surgeon
hard at work operating on the patient across the room. The doc tells
where his surgical tools are -- and what they are doing -- by watching
the screen in front of him.
(Archives of Surgery photo)

Here’s how it all came about: Douglas Gentile, Ph.D., a psychologist at Iowa State University, and Dr. James Rosser, chief of minimally invasive surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, compared surgeons who play video games to those who do not. Results? Gaming docs rule!

“The most important predictor of surgical skills is how often surgeons played video games in the past and how much they currently play,” says Dr. Gentile. “So the first query you should make to your surgeon is how many times he or she has done the operation you are going to have. The next question should be ‘Are you a gamer?’” Read more.

Does Computer Gaming = Top Plastic Surgery Skills?

It’s true! According to a new study, if you are a whiz at video games, you may make a better surgeon…at least the type of surgeon who performs “keyhole” surgery.

Keyhole surgery? What is that? Some kind of surgery by locksmiths?


“Keyhole” surgery
keyhole.uk.co. photo

Nope, it’s a type of surgery done through an opening in the skin as tiny as a keyhole. It’s a delicate type of work because you have to watch what you’re doing inside the body on a television monitor. (Read about the top 8 “keyhole surgeries” used in plastic surgery.)

But if you are into shooting games, join the Army Rangers instead and forget about surgery. These computer skills obviously lead to a helping profession.

Here’s how they found out about it: Scientists at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City studied 33 surgeons who actually had to audition for the test by playing three different video games for up to 25 minutes. (We’re not making this up; read the actual scientific report.)


Today, video games!
Tomorrow, operating rooms!
(Songbird photo via SXC)

Next, the testers watched each surgeon for one and one-half days while the doc was doing real surgery. Can you imagine sewing something together while watching and guiding a needle and its thread on a T.V. screen? Got a better idea now why plastic surgeons have to stay in school for so many years? (Read more about the training of plastic surgeon.)

Results? Nine young surgeons who played video games at least three hours a week made 37 percent few mistakes and worked 27 percent faster than 15 others surgeons who never played video games at all.


lapsurg.com.au photo

The same nine surgeons also scored 42 percent higher overall on the surgical tests.

The study, printed in the February, 2008, Archives of Surgery concluded: “Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons.”

So….next time you hear a parent or teachers yell at a kid for spending too much time video gaming, tell the critic to cool it ‘cause that kid just might someday become a top surgeon!


Tell us what you have learned from playing video games!

Guys: Forget My Hair! Do my Spider Veins Instead!

A chance for more evolved males after all?

When the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS) was rounding up annual statistics, they made an amazing discovery: The standard treatment for spider and varicose veins now ranks as the number 2 leading cosmetic dermatological surgery.

And get this: Since 2002, guys who want their spider veins removed via sclerotherapy have increased 226 percent. Women wanting the same procedure have only increased by 3.5 percent. Read more.

Why? Because more men are letting their noggins remain bald and shiny while they tackle (I just had to get an action verb in there somewhere!) their spider and varicose veins. Read more.


Spider veins -- dude version
(AAD photo)

But some skeptics note that the cost of hair transplants has increased to $1296, while sclerotherapy decreased by $103.

You don’t suppose guys are springing for the cheaper procedure, do you? If so, maybe the next entry about bald heads means more and more guys are becoming less insecure about their hair. Hey, far stranger things have happened.

For Totally Bald Heads

Among the many new products designed to spiff up personal appeal, we could not help but notice a new product, Bald Guyz, for men who have -- often by choice -- not a single strand of hair on their heads.

What does Bald Guyz do, you ask? Easy! It cleans the bare skull. Or, at least the bare skin attached to a skull shorn of its curly locks. Makes your head as smooth as a baby’s bottom, as it were.


Bald Guyz photo

And just in the nick of time!

Actually, many hair-challenged guys choose to shave their heads daily because a totally bald head is seen by some as more masculine than a state of partial baldness (think Mr. Clean and actor Yul Brenner.)

All the while, millions of others yearn with all their hearts for some hair to grace their bare pates.


Wikipedia photo

But what could a guy do? H-m-m-m-m-m-….thinking…thinking…..nope, it’s too tough; I’m stumped.

Oh wait, maybe there is something! Perhaps somebody who wants some hair on his head could…..wait for it……get a hair transplant! Lots of dermatologists and plastic and cosmetic surgeons perform the procedure. (Read more about hair transplant procedures.)

If that doesn’t work, there are always the clubs Bald R Us or Bald-Headed Men of America. Birds of a feather and all.

Do Female Hormones in the Water Cause More “Man Boobs?”

Will the U.S. see more cases of gynecomastia, the much-despised condition resulting in “Man boobs” or “Moobs,” as they are also known?

It may be due to the many pharmaceuticals found in U.S. drinking water.



Some plastic surgeons in England have already noticed that their rate of performing gynecomastia surgery is going up. In 2007, according to the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, 4,000 “blokes” had cosmetic plastic surgery to create flatter, more masculine chests. In contrast, 2005 saw only 2,100 such operations.

During 2007, the U.S. recorded 20,289 such cases, according to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS).

Here’s a typical story (“How I got Rid of My ‘Moobs’”) about what a guy with large breasts must put up with from his “mates.” Read more.

Doctors and other scientists say no single drink of tap water is like getting a dose of medicine. It’s just that the trace elements in water build up over time to create the effect.

Gynecomastia Causes

However, drinking water is not the only culprit. If a “bloke” drinks too much booze, uses street drugs, has hormone therapy for cancer of the prostate, eats foods containing the female hormone estrogen, his breasts often enlarge -- even in thin guys -- to the average size of teen girl.

(I know what you’re thinking! Should you wear a bra if you have gynecomastia? Or a training bra, at least? Actually, Seinfeld once called bras for men “bros.” Anyhow, this is not the way these guys wanted to get in touch with their feminine sides!)


A then 14-year-old patient is pictured on the left before his gynecomastia was corrected through surgery. (Photo courtesy of Elliott Jacobs, M.D.)

There appears to be no way to work off or exercise away gynecomastia. Alan Kingdon, M.D., a London cosmetic surgeon, noticed the increase in male breast reduction surgery and conducted a study on the tissues removed. He found that bone fide mammary gland tissue, which normally grows only in women. More.

Given the nature of male humor, it’s only a matter of time until some U.S. fraternity writes a new song for their parties and names it, “Drink and be Mary.”

But wait, there’s more! A popular shampoo may also cause gynecomastia. More.

And: read about an MTV contest winner who wanted to have a surgically created chest like that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the “Governator.”

Guys: Tell Us about Your Life with “Man Boobs.”

Gals: How do You React to Guys with Fleshy Chests?

Shaking the Booty -- Women and Men Gone Wild

While the trend of augmenting buttocks has taken off in the United States, it has now reached the continent of Africa where they have a new reason for shakin’ it.

It all happened because of a hit song known as “Big Bottom” in the African nation, Ivory Coast.

Here’s a YouTube take on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dH-4T6fwpw.

Ivory Coast recording artists D.J. Mix and DJ Eloh penned a smash hit, Bobaraba, or, “Big Bottom” in the local Djoula language, intending the tune as a compliment to women with larger bottoms. So when the song plays, many women and a few more men (including macho soccer stars) crowd the dance floor to shake their respective Bobarabas.

(Nobody at the American consulate seems to know if K.C. and the Sunshine Band’s top hit, “Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake Your Booty” has been translated into Djoula.)


Authentic Bobarabas
shaking.

The trend only goes astray as more and more women try to enhance their rear ends by using cheap ($2 each) Chinese supplied vitamin B-12 shots. Unfortunately, B-12 shots only cure vitamin B-12 insufficiency. More.


Authentic, enthusiastic Bobarabas
shaking. (Bazil.Rauback.SXC photo)


Imagine what will happen when the trend reaches America where many plastic surgeons offer buttocks augmentation of the female derrière.

A conversation like this may take place in thousands of American homes:

Wife: Darling, do I look fat in this dress?

Husband: I ain’t touchin’ that question with a ten-foot pole!

Wife: No, really. If my booty isn’t “big bottom” enough, I want to get it enlarged.

Husband: What’s this going to cost me?

Wife: What’s the difference? Don’t you want me to be happy?

Husband: Happiness is having a big bottom?

Wife: Sure! You can’t really dance the Bobaraba with a skinny ol’ bottom like mine! Oh, boo-hoo, boo-hoo! (She’s thinking, “Now! Hit the waterworks!”)

Husband: How ‘bout an unlimited supply of some nice B-12 shots? (Ah-ha! So the husband has been reading the Ivory Coast news!)

Wife: Nope! I want the real thing! I want buttocks augmentation from a plastic surgeon seen on television, with his own fan club and movie star patients. (And she has been watching a lot of American television!)

Husband: Uh, well, B-12 shots are quicker. (He reads the Ivory Coast news daily.)

Wife: Oh, boo-hoo, boo-hoo. You don’t love me! You want me to have a flat bottom! (She’s thinking, “I hope this works; I can’t cry much more!”)

Husband: O.K. forget the B-12 shots. Here’s a blank check for the buttocks enlargement! (He’s thinking: “Maybe now I won’t have to spend the week end moving that 900 pound, 18-piece sectional couch all over the living room to new positions so she can have it back where it first was!”)

Attention husbands and wives: under the strict medical and scientific guidelines known as “looking before you leap,” here’s more on what buttocks augmentation is all about.

The next thing we would all like to know: who’s going to write the next hit song about shaking it in the U.S. bottoms?

Anti-Bully Plastic Surgery

You may already know that the United Kingdom (Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland) have a single, taxpayer health care system known as the National Health Service (NHS.)


(naktouf photo)

The U.K. is a very civilized place -- soccer riots notwithstanding -- so folks don’t much cotton to bullying. Also verboten is serious teasing, rude e-mail, sticking tongues out, making faces or using neiner! neiner! neiner! too forcefully. So hundreds of young bully victims have had taxpayer provided cosmetic plastic surgery -- like breast enlargement or breast reduction, nose surgery or ear pinning -- so they won’t be bugged about their looks. Read more.

The school bullies I knew in the South were so mean they would throw a drowning man both ends of a rope. Or maybe toss him a bucket of water. How to deal with them? Just remember the words of English Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: “Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke. “

Top Ten Famous Quotes about Plastic Surgery

1. “Plastic surgeons are always making mountains out of molehills.”
Dolly Parton

2. “A woman went to a plastic surgeon and asked him to make her like Bo Derek. He gave her a lobotomy.”
Joan Rivers

3. “I was going to have cosmetic surgery until I noticed that the doctor's office was full of portraits by Picasso.”
Rita Rudner

4. “She got her good looks from her father. He’s a plastic surgeon.”
Groucho Marx

5. “I definitely believe in plastic surgery. I don't want to be an old hag. There's no fun in that.”
Scarlett Johansson

6. “It wasn't a fortune. It cost me the price of one-and-a-half Hermes handbags.”
Anne Robinson
British TV personality, “Queen of Mean” on her cosmetic surgery.

7. “A press agent created the legend that I was in an air crash during the war, and my face had to be put back together by plastic surgery. Well, if it is a 'bionic face,' why didn't they do a better job?”
Jack Palance

8. “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”
Dorothy Parker

9. “Pretty is something you're born with. But beautiful, that's an equal opportunity adjective.”
Author Unknown

10. “I wish I had a twin, so I could know what I'd look like without plastic surgery.”
Joan Rivers

Botox Has a Competitor!

Pretty bold, considering there are about 4 million Botox injections given yearly! The stuff is used to treat everything from wrinkles to damp palms to writer’s cramp to urgent bladders. Read more about Botox.

Zap “The 11s”



The new kid on the block is not another drug, but a machine that zaps the nerve allowing you to scrunch up the area between your eyes. (Plastic surgeons call that area “The 11s” because it looks like, well, a big number 11 on your forehead.) The treatment is known as GFX, or glabellar furrow relaxation. Read more.

Approved by the FDA, here’s how GFX works: the doc asks you to frown real hard so he can locate your frown muscles. (I don’t know about you, but I automatically go into a massive frown at the mere mention of doctor bills!)

No More Frowning

Then, the doctor numbs up your forehead and uses a small needle to find the nerve that triggers a frown. Next, a little RF (radio frequency) energy is aimed at the nerve to zap its activity. Presto! No more frowning, even if you wanted to. Even over doctor bills! The nerve isn’t destroyed; it’s just in total shock for a while.


Showing “The 11s”.

The upside: while it requires Botox a couple of days to show results that only last for three to five months, GFX is said to last anywhere from eight to 18 months.

Downside: Botox costs anywhere from $250 to $450 per treatment depending on where you live. But because only two U.S. physicians are currently delivering GFX, a treatment is running anywhere from $1800 to $3000.

Read more about plastic surgery costs.

Top 10 Extreme Plastic Surgeries

1. Belly Button Surgery

Some people with “innies” want “outies” and vice-versa. Technically, the operation is known as an umbilicoplasty. Read more.

2. Toe-Besity Surgery



Got tubbie toes? Stubby toes? Slim them! More.

3. Eyebrow Transplants

There’s no woe like skimpy or no eyebrow woe! More.

4. Foot Facelift



A toe may be too long or short; maybe it’s the dreaded “high heel foot” condition or corns, bunions or hammertoes. Solution? Anything but sensible shoes. Puh-lease! Better: a toe tuck and foot facelift to look good in sandals.

5. Ear on the Forearm

You don’t see a lot of this but one “performance” artist
implanted a more-or-less real human ear on his forearm. Something to do
with seeing what he is hearing? I don’t get it either but, hey,
today’s avant garde is tomorrow’s ho-hum. More.


This is not Photoshopped. The ear
was grown from human cells in a
Petri dish in a university lab.

6. Rib Removal

I always thought this was taken care of in the Garden of Eden. Anyhow, some women who want an hourglass shaped figure have two or three ribs removed. But the patient also must have a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) for the whole concept to come together. More.


A patient shows her new waist just after her surgery, left,
and after things have healed better.


7. The Human Barbie

Sarah Burge, 46, an English woman, has had 26 plastic surgeries over the last 20 years, trying to make herself look like Barbie. It’s actually quite a lonely life because there is no Ken in sight. Any volunteers, guys? It has only cost Sarah $351,775 to get a certain Barbie look. So far, that is. More.

8. Plastic Surgery for Kangaroos.



Feznick, a popular Hollywood movie star, (well, in roles that call for a kangaroo,
anyhow,) was bit by one of his neighbors where a lot of acting animals live. Hey,
this is California, you know! Because his close-ups would be ruined, he had
plastic surgery on his snout. More

9. Michael Jackson

Need we say more? Some plastic surgeons figure 10 to 15 surgeries on that nose. More

10.Jocelyn Wildenstein

Ha! You didn’t think we could top Michael Jackson, huh? Jocelyn’s bill for plastic surgery -- no wait, make that bad plastic surgery -- is said to be over 3 million dollars, thanks to a multi-million dollar inheritance. More.


Jocelyn, aka “The Cat Woman”

Human Fat-Powered Speedboat?

The vast majority of plastic surgeons don’t have a use for the fat they suck or melt from your body during liposuction.

Of course, a few noble souls are searching. Some even freeze patients’ fat in case some future discovery is made. A few surgeons move fat from one unwanted location of your body to another while research labs constantly look for medical uses.

Suddenly, a really practical thing comes along. Now, human fat can be used to power your speedboat! Why didn’t somebody think of this before? Will bass fishing ever be the same?


The Earthrace -- World’s
First Blubber Boat

In New Zealand, Pete Bethune, a former oil industry worker, created the Earthrace, a US$3 million dollar ship that will try to break the world’s speed record for zipping around the globe. The boat is powered by natural biofuels which usually combines recycled restaurant grease with some diesel fuel. Actually, Pete wants to promote biofuels more than snaring the world record.

To attract attention, Bethune and others underwent liposuction, collecting two gallons of fat that can drive the boat about nine miles.

Is that to say human blubber only gets four and one half miles per gallon? Well, it depends on what you’re driving and how fast you are going. At 23 tons, the Earthrace is a really big boat that goes really fat, er, that is, fast at a blazing 23 to 29 mph.

If all goes according to plan, the boat should take 75 days to race 32,000 miles around the world, thereby breaking the record by 10 days.

Unless they have to stop to take on more fat.

Researchers: Caffeine Reduces Thighs!

Don’t you just hate it when you’re holding a full cup of coffee and the driver zooms away from a stop light, spilling the coffee all over your lap? Can’t you sue the seller of the coffee or the car manufacturer for something like that?

Sure, the coffee is scorching and makes you look funny when you get to work but that spilled coffee -- or at least the caffeine in the coffee -- just could be a blessing in disguise

Here’s why: Brazilian researchers studied a type of cream containing seven percent caffeine rubbed onto the thighs of 99 women twice daily for 30 days. At the end of the test, the researchers measured the womens’ thighs and found 80 percent had reduced their upper and lowers thighs. An unexpected bonus finding: 68 percent also reduced their hips.

(We are not making this up! Read the scientific article in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.)

This has to be truly groundbreaking research! The high-priced coffees we drink in the United States must be somewhere around 75 or 80 percent caffeine. So the obvious no-brainer application is to let the coffee cool, ask your friend to pull over, get out and apply the coffee directly to your thighs. U.S. coffee sales will skyrocket once the word gets out!



Meanwhile, Professor Omar Lupi, M.D., Ph.D. of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro had some bad news we must unfortunately deliver, much as we dislike bearing woeful tidings: Alas, the cream did not work on cellulite. “The caffeine cream may help women who want to look thinner, but exercise is still the best way to go,” says Professor Lupi.

Until more people pick up on the caffeine thing, read what plastic surgeons can do for thighs.

Top Ten U.S. Cities for Plastic Surgery

A recent Forbes Magazine recently counted the number of top plastic surgeons in large U.S. cities and compared them to the population. Read more.

The survey turned out differently than what you are probably thinking. Beverly Hills, often consider the Mecca of global plastic surgery, does not lead the list.

The only surgeons counted in the article are board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. So cosmetic surgeons were not included. What’s the difference between the two types of surgeons and the work they do? Read about it here.


Here are the top ten:
1. Salt Lake City

There are six plastic surgeons per 100,000 people there. 45 plastic surgeons live in Salt Lake City.

2. San Francisco

The city by the Bay has 5.4 plastic surgeons per 100,000 population. That means 175 surgeons do the work.

3. San Diego,

With 115 plastic surgeons in San Diego, the numbers crunch to 5.2 surgeons per 100,000 citizens.

4. San Jose, California

The silicone valley town has 5.2 plastic surgeons per 100,000 people. 70 plastic surgeons handle the rejuvenations.

5. Miami, Florida

Even though the wacky T.V. show Nip/Tuck started in Miami, there are 5.2 board- certified, very non-wacky surgeons per 100,000 citizens. 218 plastic surgeons live in Miami.

6. Louisville, Kentucky

Forty one plastic surgeons live in Louisville which boils down to 4.4 surgeons for every 100,000 people.

7. Nashville, Tennessee

Same again. With 48 plastic surgeons in and around Nashville, there are 4,4 surgeons per 100,000 population.

8. Virginia Beach, Virginia.

With 51 plastic surgeons, the population of Virginia Beach offers 4.1 surgeons to every 100,000 people.

9. New York, N.Y.
A whopping 591 plastic surgeons have set up shop in the Big Apple but The City is so big, it boils down to 4.1 plastic surgeons for every 100,000 New Yorkers.

10. Los Angeles

Gotcha! You probably thought fad crazy Los Angeles would lead the list! Actually, the 384 plastic surgeons living and working there creates a ratio of 4.1 surgeons to do the heavy lifting for every 100,000 Angelinos.

Scalpel! Clamp! Crochet hook!

To develop a new technique, Peter Lawrence, M.D., chief of vascular surgery at University of California, Los Angeles, bought a size 7 crochet hook.

However, Dr. Lawrence wasn’t knitting; he saw a way to use a crochet hook as a new surgical tool to remove varicose veins.

The old surgical methods involve some pain, stitches and time off for recovery. Lasers and radio frequency, using heat and energy are also employed along with vein stripping, tying off the vein or injecting a solution that would make the varicose vein whither and die.



This crochet hook is for knitting,
not surgery.

Using the crochet hook method, Dr. Lawrence has done 268 cases in the last two years. He makes a very small incision, reaches in with the crochet hook (which has been adapted for surgery) and snags and pulls out the vein. The incision is so small, no stitches are needed and the resulting scar looks like a freckle. Read more.

Some English doctors are using the same method to pull large veins out of aging hands but Dr. Lawrence advises against it. Many other plastic surgeons routinely make older hands look younger.

“The day may come when you will very much need those veins in your hands to insert I.V. needles,” says the doctor.