Nu Skin

I was planning to go to Robinson’s Ermita Saturday afternoon but decided to abort the plan after waking up really late. I came home around 11 the night before after tagging along with Toastmaster Alvin in the Nu Skin symposium that he attended. It was a huge coincidence as well because I saw Paolo, the domestic partner of my college schoolmate and former co-worker Frankie. I knew that he was now working for a pharmaceutical company but I certainly did not expect for Nu Skin to be his employer.

I didn’t have any plans of purchasing any product from them but it was worth sitting through a two-hour lecture cum product endorsement from their speaker guests. They all discussed ageing and the three guests explored three diverse yet interconnected fields of study – molecular biology, dermatology and pharmacy. Each one attempted to explain the how, what, when and why’s of growing old. I don’t really need to discuss the solution because it would have been obvious by now.

I certainly learned a lot of things from the molecular biologist and the pharmacist about free radical and UV damage to the body. As for the dermatologist’s lecture, well, you can watch ET and E! or simply browse through entertainment and magazines to pick up knowledge on the latest beauty products, “medical procedures and intervention programs” if you get my drift.

I was surrounded by seemingly “yes people” of Pharmanex – distributors, users and agents – and I felt saddened. Half the world’s population is starving, dying from diseases or suffering from strife and here I was sitting in an air-conditioned room listening to people’s call to arms against the signs of ageing. Millions of research dollars go to the so-called “diseases of the rich” while those from the developing economies wither away in pain. All for the simple reason that there is simply no market for cure against the “diseases of the poor” because they wouldn’t be able to shell out much dough for them.

There is no fountain of youth and we’re all going to expire anyway so what’s the big hullabaloo? Dr. Al Robbins of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation couldn’t have put it better – “Beauty is skin deep but inside we’re all made up of the same stuff (referring to various internal organs as he was performing the autopsy of homicide victim Vanessa Keaton).”