Last year, I learned of what I thought at the time was the strangest beauty trend I’d ever seen. A pedicure in which the foot soak consists of about 100 little carp fish, known as “doctor fish” nibbling away at the dead skin on your feet. Once the fish have had their way with your feet, you proceed with a regular pedicure. Ummm, yeah, no thanks!
But this product trumps the little fish any day… While running on the treadmill yesterday I was watching the show, The Doctors. I love this show, I really do. They do a great job of reporting on the latest findings in healthcare, nutrition, exercise, anti-aging, etc. and presenting it in a manner that is easy to understand. I always come away from this show feeling better informed, and with something new to try or implement in my own life. I’m still having trouble, however, wrapping my head around a new anti-aging treatment that was featured yesterday.
SkinMedica’s TNS Essential Serum is a new anti-aging skin treatment containing Nouri-Cel MD, a proprietary blend of human growth factors. Many thanks to the good doctors who were kind enough to translate…I learned that the treatment contains circumcised foreskin. Yes, you read that right. Someone’s darling new baby boy gets the “snip snip” and for approximately $250 per 1 oz. container, I can improve the appearance of fine lines and even my skin tone.
Now, let me say that I am very intrigued by the science behind this product. It has been very effective in speeding skin cell turnover in burn victims, minimizing scars and expediting healing time. That is incredibly amazing to me – medical science rocks! Being a lover of all things anti-aging, I would probably run out and buy this product except for one thing…
I have a son. When he was born a little over 8 years ago, we opted to have him circumcised. I never once thought about what happened to that “part” of him – until now. I’ve gotta confess, this whole thing creeps me out a little bit – for that reason. Oh, and it raises a lot of questions too…
1) Shouldn’t someone ask permission from the parents? Isn’t this similar to organ donation?
2) Could someone request that their own son’s foreskin be reserved just for their personal use – or is that even weirder than the tissue going to a stranger?
3) Could you “earmark” your child’s foreskin to be used for medical purposes only – such as for burn victims?
4) Historically, circumcision is on the decline – if this continues, will that cause the price of the product to go up?
5) Does the hospital profit from the collection of the tissue? If not, who does?
Disclaimer: Please understand that I am not judging the makers of the product or anyone who chooses to use it. I’m sure I am weirded out by this only because I have a son and am looking at it from that perspective. I have read about the use of cord blood cells in skincare products before and never gave it much thought.
I would love to be having coffee with all of you right now and openly discussing this topic. Who every thought a discussion of beauty products could be so interesting – or am I just easily amused?
What do you think? Would you try this product? Do you see any moral ramifications to the use of human tissue in cosmetics and beauty treatments?
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