Dr. Masayo Yahata
Director, Kobe Luminous Clinic
Dr. Masayo Yahata, director of Kobe Luminous Clinic is an older system of Dr. Tomoyo Yahata featured in the previous article, who is conducting research on Kawasaki disease at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. She is an excellent doctor making efforts to supply total medical care including instillation therapy, which is an uninsured optional treatment, to those who are sick at a relatively reasonable cost aiming to achieve “equal opportunities” in health and return profits to society while she is in a very commercial field of uninsured free medical services. Her clinic provides a wide variety of services including aesthetic surgery, plastic surgery, dermatology, and anti-aging medicine. We interviewed Dr. Masayo Yahata, who is at the forefront of aesthetic surgery and anti-aging medicine.
Kobe Luminous Clinic
It is exciting to see the patients’ facial expressions change to bright smiles
Could you give an overview of your clinic?
Kobe Luminous Clinic opened in December 2009 at the most fashionable center of Kobe, where office buildings, commercial buildings, and famous boutiques are clustered, establishing ourselves as specialists in aesthetic surgery, plastic surgery, dermatology, and anti-aging medicine. It is only a short time since its opening, but, fortunately, many patients visit us daily. Presently, about 70% of the patients visit us for aesthetic surgery or plastic surgery such as slim-up and face-lift. We listen carefully to patients who visit us with worries and complexes about their looks and choose the best treatment by talking with them. If, after surgery, the patients’ problems have been resolved, and they show bright smiles, that is my happiest moment. A patient may come with dropped shoulders and a humped back, but, after treatment, she stretches her back spontaneously and projects an atmosphere full of confidence. We feel very rewarded at such moments. Patients who come for anti-aging treatments have increased gradually, and now they account for about 30% of all our patients.
We objectively evaluate the patients’ conditions using FRAS4
Dr. Masayo Yahata monitoring a patient’s general condition during surgery
Our Anti-Aging Department primarily provides ambient supplement services, ozone blood cleansing therapy, and chelation therapy. I suppose many people have some symptoms, for example, they may feel something is wrong or be lethargic or depressed while they are not diagnosed as having a “disease”. “Not being sick” does not immediately means “being healthy”. There are several stages until “diseases” are diagnosed, and these symptoms are indications that the body is getting sick. It is very important to reset and restore the body to a healthy state at this stage. We provide menus to prevent diseases and delay the progression of aging to help patients enjoy their health as long as possible. We think that the d-ROMs and BAP tests using FRAS4 along with the patients’ symptoms are very useful in making objective judgments as to whether their body conditions are deteriorating. We had decided to equip our clinic with FRAS4 before its opening.
Accuracy, simplicity, and quickness are necessary at contemporary medical practices
Measurement of oxidative stress and antioxidant potential can be ordered to commercial laboratories or measured at your own laboratory by a few methods. But they can be measured accurately and easily by anyone using FRAS4 compared with conventional methods. In addition, the results can be obtained in only 5 minutes. Therefore, the condition of the patient can be evaluated promptly and can be fed back to the patient. This permits the initiation of treatment or correction on that moment. If it takes 3 days or 1 week until the results become available, it would damp the patient’s motivation.
“Informed consent” is vital for anti-aging treatments, and the d-ROMs and BAP tests are useful for the planning of treatment
Entrance approach to the clinic
After the end of aesthetic treatment, many patients continue visiting the clinic for anti-aging or preventive treatments. For aesthetic surgery, we take time and discuss the patient’s current problems with the patient, because to have the patient feel, “Oh, this is not what I wanted,” after surgery is inexcusable. We always aim to have the patient feel maximum satisfaction after treatment. In anti-aging treatment, also, we emphasize “explanation, consent, and satisfaction”. Unlike aesthetic treatments, effects of many anti-aging treatments are difficult to perceive clearly, so we carefully perform them by listening to the patients’ needs and wishes attentively and taking time in explaining their contents. In this process, we measure oxidative stress and antioxidant potential and determine the treatment strategy on the basis of the results. Is supplement therapy sufficient, or is instillation therapy or blood ozone cleansing therapy more appropriate? Many patients come to our clinic after they have made up their minds about which treatment they want, but we chose the treatment that the patient can best accept by integrating the patient’s wishes, objective indices, and our judgments.
FRAS4 ensures the objectivity and persuasiveness
That the patient chooses treatments by his/her full consent and is satisfied with the outcome: This is important in all fields of clinical medicine. In anti-aging medicine, also, the d-ROMs and BAP tests are indispensable for the “objective” judgment of whether the supplement or instillation therapy that we have recommended to the patient is effective. We consider that patients support and are satisfied with the treatment only when they confirm improvements in the test results together with us. Presently, rationales for anti-aging medicine are being converging on the “longevity gene theory” and “oxidative stress theory”, so I expect oxidative stress and antioxidant potential measured with FRAS4 to become more and more important as indices of anti-aging treatments.
At the venue of a conference of the Japanese Society of Anti-Aging Medicine
Left: Dr. Masayo Yahata Right: Dr. Tomoyo Yahata
d-ROMS and BAP tests are useful for both research and clinical activities.
My sister is a researcher at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine and is making presentations and writing papers on research she is conducting with d-ROMs and BAP tests. I am performing the same tests clinically at my clinic. We use them for different purposes, but, by either use, I am sure they are contributing to the health of many people.
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