Is 'Cinderella injection' effective to have better looks?

Shin Hyun-young

By Shin Hyun-young

There are several injections that were indirectly promoted by Choi Soon-sil during the ongoing scandal involving her.

Nutrition injections delivered to the Blue House included the extracts of placenta and garlic; and the esoterically named cinderella, lily-white and licorice injections.

These injections are classified as functional medicine for the purposes of promoting health factors such as anti-aging and anti-fatigue.

Frequently they are prescribed at local clinics, while being marketed as former President Park Geun-hye’s injections.

Several media reporters have interviewed doctors about the Choi Soon-sil scandal with questions such as, “Are these injections effective?” “What is the cost?” and “What is the medical background behind these injections?”

My answer was, “It is difficult to conclude whether or not the injections are effective at all. Although medical evidence is relatively low, there are a limited number of cases in which they have had ad proven positive medical effects.”

Evidence-based medicine is an approach to medical practice intended to optimize decision-making through the use of scientific evidence.

There are steps in obtaining medical evidence such as meta-analyses, systematic review and randomized, controlled clinical trials which provide higher levels of medical evidence.

It provides a relatively low level of medical evidence in the order of cohort study, case-control study, case report, animal experiment, and laboratory research depending on the study design and subject.

Therefore, doctors and scientists determine medical recommendations after assessing the quality of evidence.

These nutritional injections do not have sufficient medical evidence because of a lack of clinical human trials.

There are a limited number of case reports and clinical experiences, but no clinical trials such as meta-analyses or randomized, controlled clinical trials have been conducted.

Therefore, it is difficult for doctors to strongly recommend these injections to patients based on evidence-based medicine.

However, medicine is constantly developing, and there are new medical technologies for which their effectiveness in some disease areas with no definitive treatment, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, has yet to be proven.

For the purpose of promoting health, medical treatments with limited medical evidence can be applied to patients, although they are not covered by national medical insurance.

The government started to verify the level of medical evidence supporting the effectiveness of the injections and establish the medical guidelines for the use of nutritional injections, with the help of medical doctors, after widespread social issues.

Doctors and scientists need to reclaim the role of functional medicine, the border between disease treatment and health promotion, while uncovering new medical evidence to give a strong recommendation.

The writer is a professor of family medicine in Myongji Hospital.