Public consultation on NMN, NAD+ and stem cell infusion
Appearing on social networks with the image of a large-scale beauty establishment, providing hundreds of beauty and health care services, KamLy Medical Aesthetics (https://www. facebook. com/VienThamMyKamLy/) continuously promotes itself as a licensed general clinic, possessing a team of professional doctors and many high-tech health care and beauty services.
However, reporters' records show that, besides legally advertised services, this facility still publicly advises, invites and introduces a series of therapies that have not been licensed by the Ministry of Health in the field of aesthetics such as: NMN infusion, NAD+, stem cells,...
In the role of a customer who needs to rejuvenate their body, reporters quickly received advice from facility staff on a series of service packages with prices up to tens of millions of VND per course.
Our NMN infusion service will have a 10-session course, plus 2 glutathione sessions to support skin whitening. If you want to focus on your health, you should get NMN or NAD+ infusions. Price 25 million VND for 10 sessions and plus 2 glutathione sessions," a consultant introduced.
Not only offering services, employees also provided information about the uses of these products. When asked what NMN and NAD+ are, this person affirmed that these are "precursors of stem cells", and at the same time promoted the ability to "rejuvenate from within the body".
NAD+ is a precursor of stem cells. NMN, NAD+ are both forms of rejuvenation support from within the body," this person said.
When reporters said that they had thyroid tumors and were concerned that injection and infusion methods could affect their health, the staff admitted that NMN and NAD+ should not be infused, but glutathione whitening can still be used if needed.
Actually, if you have thyroid gland, you shouldn't get NMN. Getting glutathione is still okay," the consultant said.
To increase customer confidence, the facility continued to invite a person introduced as "Doctor Giang" - a famous doctor of the facility - to directly advise.
This person also recommended not infusing NMN in cases of thyroid tumors, but still introduced glutathion infusion packages and said that it is only necessary to monitor, if the tumor develops, stop using it.
''You have quite obvious thyroid tumors, your case should be limited, you should only receive glutathion to support tonifying the liver and whitening the skin. For example, after a few doses, if you go for a re-examination and see the tumor size increase, you should stop,'' said the person claiming to be Dr. Giang.
Throughout the exchange process, the facility repeatedly emphasized that it is a general clinic, with full specialties and doctors in charge to create peace of mind for customers.
Now the law is very strict. Hand-carried goods or goods of unknown origin are not allowed to be made because they are heavily fined. Our products all originate from Switzerland, with full papers. We are a general clinic, not a regular beauty establishment," this person affirmed.
Not stopping at NMN, NAD+ or glutathione infusion packages, employees also continue to introduce many other rejuvenation therapies, including products advertised as "salmon stem cells" to inject into the eye area to improve wrinkles and fight aging.
According to reporters' records, these services are still publicly consulted and offered to customers by the establishment, although many techniques and products such as NMN, NAD+ or stem cells have not yet been allowed by management agencies to be used in the field of aesthetics for the purpose of rejuvenation and anti-aging. This raises many questions about the legality of the services being promoted and provided by the establishment.
Risk of health trade-offs due to rejuvenating advertisements
Not only at Kamly Beauty Salon, reporters also recorded the situation of promoting whitening, stem cell infusion and body rejuvenation services appearing in many other beauty establishments.
Services are often introduced with attractive advertisements such as "age reversal", "rejuvenation", "complete body recovery" or "rejuvenation from within". However, behind those promises are many potential risks to customers' health.
According to the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15, Decree 96 and guiding circulars (including Circular 23), stem cells are identified as a technical list. To be implemented, they must first be named in the technical list; then build a technical process for implementation; on that basis, economic norms can be developed and service prices can be established.
However, for stem cell technology, when compared with legal regulations and the current technical list, it is still not available and has not been approved. Because it has not been approved, the reality is that the process of performing this service is very chaotic, without economic norms and without prices.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, MSc.BSCKII Cao Ngoc Duy - Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery, Duc Giang General Hospital - said that currently products such as NAD+, NMN or many preparations advertised as stem cells have not been licensed by the Ministry of Health for use in the field of beauty.
According to MSc.BSCKII Cao Ngoc Duy, some products can be researched or used in certain medical indications but should not be used for whitening and anti-aging purposes as advertised on the market.
In official hospitals and medical facilities, glutathione is not used for whitening infusions. If errors occur in any stage of infusion, it can also lead to allergic reactions, anaphylactic shock, and even threaten the patient's life," Dr. Duy warned.
Experts added that in fact, some cases of adverse reactions have been recorded after using IV services at non-hospital facilities.
In the context that many unlicensed beauty services are still being heavily promoted on social networks, experts recommend that people be cautious about advertisements about the ability to rejuvenate rapidly or comprehensively restore health. Choosing unverified intervention methods not only poses financial risks but can also make customers pay for their own health.
