1 month ago
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This all started at the annual BSP reception for the banking community last month when Philippine Stock Exchange chairman Jose “Titoy” Pardo and Monetary Board member Romeo Bernardo, along with a few other MB members and bankers engaged in light banter about stem cell treatment to slow down the aging process and prevent age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.
Stem cell treatment, because of its regenerative effect, is also being explored as a treatment for other diseases, including cancer.
Of course there was mention of some well-known individuals (secret!) who have had stem cell treatment and visibly look younger and healthier, seemingly successful at delaying the aging process, but at a substantial cost, of course, and where best to get such treatment--Singapore and Switzerland – although it is actually available locally, but at twice the cost.
But that was all cocktail small talk that night.
However, for a female member of the Hombres, a motorcycle group started by Romy Bernardo several years back, when he could still enjoy carefree Sunday motorcycle rides, the search for an alternative cure to an unexpected and aggressive cancer threat has become real and imperative.
Dr. Michelle Manuel, who is unofficially the “consulting” doctor of the Hombres, like most doctors and women in general, never seriously thought that she could get cancer. Thus, it came as a big surprise that what most women take for granted as monthly menstrual pains turned out to be more life-threatening than she had ever imagined following testing and a biopsy.
Doc. Michelle’s experience, unfortunately, also made it painfully real that the Philippine medical sector is so inadequately equipped to accurately identify and diagnose a particularly aggressive strain.
What was supposed to be a definitive cure to remove her uterus and get rid of the identified cancer cells turned out to be a stop gap measure, as soon after, further tests showed that the cancer cells had already quickly attached to her lymph nodes and spread. It is not clear how the medical technicians were not able to accurately test the biopsy samples, especially since a request to secure the samples for further testing now involves a search for the tissue samples.
Doc. Michelle is looking for alternative treatments and must now search outside the country as others who can afford it have done.
A belated birthday breakfast celebration for Hombres member Professor Randy David had brought the Hombres and their partners back to Betis, Pampanga to the ancestral home of the David family. The birthday breakfast celebration prepared by Randy’s sisters Leila and Marivic has been a sort of tradition for the Hombres group.
The David family’s ancestral home, known as a Bale Pinaud or bahay pawid, is a more than 120-year-old relic that was built anywhere from 1902 to 1904 by their grandfather around the late Spanish colonial era. They were able to save it from destruction following the lahar spawned by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. With the expertise of Randy’s brother engineer Isaac David and architect Nestor David, the original kubo was where all 13 David siblings, including Cardinal Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David – seven boys and six girls--and their parents lived, was raised and a new concrete structure was built underneath to keep it safe and survive any further lahar or flooding event.
The family regularly meets at the ancestral home during weekends and holidays, with the sisters cooking up a feast for members of the David clan, which has now grown to more than a hundred relatives.
With members of the almost two decade long Hombres group advancing in age and feeling the ravages of time, talk once again turned to health and wellness and the medical breakthroughs that are slowing down the aging process and even offering rejuvenation and regenerative cure for some ailments.
It was then that Romy revealed his own journey and experience with hyperbaric oxygen therapy or HBOT at the Asian Hyperbaric Healthcare Center along Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong, run by his cousin Dr. Jojo Bernardo who specializes in sports rehabilitation.
I, along with Doc. Michelle, was invited to experience the potential benefits of HBOT, which continuing studies and research have shown, provides regenerative healing properties in the same way that stem cell therapy provides, but at a cheaper cost. However, HBOT is by no means cheap.
According to Dr. Bernardo, HBOT is primarily used to speed up healing by increasing the delivery of oxygen to the body by providing pure oxygen in an enclosed space with higher than normal air pressure.
Dr. Bernardo and his associates have invested in two hyperbaric chambers that are able to provide treatment to those who are recuperating from strokes, other vascular diseases including Alzheimer’s, and help speed up the healing process for decompression sickness, brain trauma patients, surgical patients, diabetic ulcers, tissue damage from radiation therapy due to cancer and sports injuries.
However, Dr. Bernardo points out that the benefit of HBOT can extend beyond the current protocols to include treatment for a host of other diseases in tandem with traditional medical practices.
One patient of Dr. Bernardo who can attest to the efficacy of HBOT is former banker Alex Escucha who has been undergoing treatment to speed up the healing of a surgical wound from the implant of a pacemaker. According to Alex, his surgical wound from the implant operation was not healing properly and would have necessitated another operation to relocate the pacemaker. He, thus, did his own research and found the possible solution to his problem, which was HBOT.
Under a 25 session of HBOT consisting of two-hour treatments, Alex is already experiencing the healing benefits of the therapy.
My own experience of one session was a sedate two-hour on and off oxygen therapy while watching a movie, Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment chosen by Alex. It started pretty much like being in a pressurized airplane cabin wherein one has to regularly equalize by blowing or popping out the trapped air in our nasal cavity.
Patients are able to snack, especially those with diabetes, as the pressurized atmosphere can cause a drop in blood sugar. I had initially thought that I would fall asleep during the session, but on the contrary I felt energized and after the session felt reinvigorated for the whole day, and come night time quickly fell asleep contrary to my normally long routine of remaining awake till the wee hours because of my insomnia.
In my own case, Dr. Bernardo pointed out that HBOT can provide benefits for asthma patients.
Having noticed Romy’s own rejuvenation, I am hopeful that if I can scrounge up the budget I would definitely avail myself of HBOT for its health and beauty benefit (of course, possibly erase those age line creases)?
