AS UNLIKELY as it may seem, Simon Cowell likes to start the day by climbing a tree. He recently revealed it had become a ritual of his.
He believes that the childish pastime sets him up for the long day ahead. And when he’s not clambering over branches, TV’s Mr Nasty is being drip-fed a cocktail of energising vitamins in order to look and feel younger.
The weekly infusion is made up of vitamins C, B12 and magnesium and is administered intravenously through a drip.
“It’s an incredibly warm feeling,” says 51-year-old Cowell. “You feel all the vitamins going through you. It’s very calming.”
It may sound bonkers, but the former X Factor judge is not alone in embracing wacky therapies to turn back time.
From cow brains and human placenta creams to ice chambers and leeches, there’s nothing celebrities won’t try in their search for the elixir of youth.
LEECH THERAPY
This not-for-the-squeamish treatment involves having your body shaved and hopping into a turpentine bath where ravenous leeches feast on your blood, all in the name of that favourite celebrity pastime – detoxing.
Demi Moore, 48, raved about her experience with the bloodsuckers at an Austrian spa. “You watch the leech swell up on your blood, getting fatter and fatter,” she said enthusiastically.
The leeches’ saliva has anaesthetic and anti-clotting properties and can make blood vessels expand, which is why they’ve been used in medicine since ancient Egyptian times. But it’s doubtful they could detox the body more than the liver does.
VENOM FACIAL
While the idea of a snake bite or a bee sting isn’t appealing to us mortals, celebs are snapping up tingling creams packed with the poison, which is said to have wrinkle-busting qualities. It’s nature’s Botox, don’t you know?
Gwyneth Paltrow, 38, is said to adore snake venom treatments, while Dannii and Kylie Minogue, 39 and 43, (and even Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall) are hooked on £55 (R650) jars of Heaven bee venom mask.
The venom gently stings the skin, which sends signals to the nerves to produce chemicals to relax and strengthen the facial muscles. Voila! Wrinkles are gone – or so it claims.
TIBETAN MONK EXERCISES
These are a series of yoga-like exercises, known as the “fountain of youth” routine or “five Tibetan rites”, which date back 2 500 years and have been practised daily by Tibetan monks.
Bruce Forsyth, the newly knighted 83-year-old Strictly Come Dancing host, swears by this daily regime of 25 twirls, knee rotations, toe wriggles, calf slaps and hip wiggles. “I don’t want to grow old gracefully. I want to put up a fight,” he says. Good, because here graceful is not an option.
There’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo about these exercises helping to restore our body’s “spinning vortexes”, but practising yoga every day for 15 minutes can’t do any harm.
HUMAN PLACENTA FACE MASK
This treatment involves a face mask containing real human placenta (collected from Russian maternity wards) being massaged into your face. The skin-glowing results are said to last three times longer than standard facials.
Pop star Jennifer Lopez, 42, reportedly has two placenta facials a week, costing a whopping £700 (R8 300), and actress Reese Witherspoon, 35, and Madonna, 53, are fans.
Placenta is rich in protein, vitamins and minerals and an amino acid called glycine, which plumps the skin. It’s great for sun damage and acid scars – if you can stomach it.
CERAMIC CRYSTALS
Having pieces of porcelain injected into your face with a gun might not be your idea of a good time, but £450 (R5 300) ceramic crystal therapy is one of the latest beauty fads to come out of Paris. It promises to create a facelift effect without a scalpel.
Ex-supermodel Jerry Hall, 55, tried the treatment, which was created by French dermatologist Dr Maurice Dray.
The crystals (biphasic tricalcium phosphates) are often used in porcelain and dental powders or as stomach-calming antacids, but here they are suspended in skin-plumping hyaluronic acid and injected under the skin to “hold up” the face while encouraging collagen production.
ICE CHAMBERS
Not one for sauna lovers, kriotherapy involves being frozen alive.
Wrapped in socks, gloves, a headband, face mask and undies, you are shut in a room where the temperature is a biting -130ºC for three minutes.
The £35 (R410) sessions assist with all manner of ailments, from sports injuries to cellulite and general fatigue.
Pamela Anderson, 43, and Tony Blair, 58, are both fans of this treatment.
The extreme temperature sends your body into protective mode, shutting off blood supply to your arms and legs. So blood rushes around your extremities and the body produces a boost of serotonin, the “happy hormone”.
BIRD POO FACIAL
You might get a surprise if you booked in for an elegant-sounding “Geisha facial”. This treatment involves having bird excrement – nightingale droppings collected in Japan – smeared over your face to leave you with a healthy shine.
Victoria Beckham is said to be so obsessed with the £135 (R1 530) New York spa facial that she now uses a cream containing the bird droppings at home.
Ever noticed how bird poo strips the paint off your car? Well this works in the same way – an enzyme breaks down the top layers of skin to leave you with a youthful glow. Apparently, it’s how Geisha girls took off their lead-based make-up before the days of cleanser.
COW BRAIN OINTMENT
There’s no use looking youthful if your brain can’t keep up. Selegiline is a smelly yellow ointment made from cows’ brains used to treat conditions from Parkinson’s disease to depression and is said to sharpen up the mind.
Mel Gibson, 55, smears the stuff on his arms to “clean the neurotransmitters and sharpen mental focus” – before a game of poker. It is a proven drug, but Gibson shouldn’t use it as he does because the side effects include sleepiness, constipation and nausea. Perhaps that explains his often unusual behaviour.
There are no vampires involved in the Platelet Rich Plasma facial – but it is rather bloody, which is how it got its nickname. Vials of blood are drawn from the willing victim, which are spun around in a special device. The blood is then re-injected to boost natural production of collagen to improve the skin’s structure.
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, 36 , who once wore a vial of ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton’s blood around her neck, swears by it.
The whizzed-around blood separates, forming a layer of plasma that is rich in collagen-boosting platelets. When it is re-injected the skin rejuvenates. But effects are short-lived. – Daily Mail