Dermatologist to the stars

Although we are going through uncertain times, I know of a lot of people who are already stacking up on cans of fruit-cocktails for their fruit salads this coming holiday season.

In stark contrast, having food for noche buena is the farthest in the minds of the more vain among us. Instead, they are working out to death at the gym or saving up for their liposuction so that they’ll look good and confident about themselves among friends and relatives during the Christmas reunion.

A lot of these people for sure are already inquiring about rates from the various clinics of Dr. Vicki Belo, who is undeniably the most popular in her field.

But who really is Dr. Vicki Belo? Why do the stars come to her – and why did she make it her business to make other people look beautiful?

Dr. Belo’s decision to go into the beauty business actually stems from some unpleasant experiences she went through as a child and all throughout her growing up years. And the fact that she was adopted.

No, her adoption case wasn’t exactly All Mine to Give type of sob story. Born to a wealthy Cancio couple, her parents – who were blessed with a lot of kids – decided to giver her to a childless aunt and uncle who loved her so much, they gave her the Belo surname.

Although she lived in a different house, she still saw her sisters often because they all studied in Assumption.

And it was in this campus where she often felt the stigma of being adopted. Every time the car was late in picking her up, schoolmates would taunt her and tell not wait up anymore because her foster parents wouldn’t bother to send for her since she was just adopted anyway. And then, there was this other remark that was downright mean and cruel which she often heard as a child: That she was given away by her real parents because she was pangit. Of course, that was farthest from the truth because Vicki was adorable as a kid. However, she was fat. At the age of five, she already weighed 90 lbs. And that gave the cruel kids around her more ammunition to make life miserable for her.

When she reached seventh grade, another problem cropped up: She grew pimples on her face and needed to have a weekly date with her dermatologist.

Eventually, the pimples went away – and so did the excess fat which she eliminated by playing squash and doing light aerobics. (She later ventured into teaching aerobics in a gym class even when she was already practicing medicine.)

At the State University where she took up BS Psychology, she became a much sought-after campus belle because of her shapely figure.

Unfortunately, she lost her shape again after undergoing an operation for appendicitis. Her mother, wanting to nurse her back to health, fattened her up until she ballooned to 130 lbs. (from 108) in a month’s time. When she returned to school, she immediately noticed a change in people’s attitude toward her. While the girls in campus became nicer to her (she was no longer a threat to them), the boys who used to elbow out each other for the honor of carrying her books all just disappeared – no thanks to her barrel-like figure.

Why, even the school employees at the registrar’s office who were all so nice and accommodating to her when she had her svelte figure were no longer as helpful when she showed up in campus fat.

Of course, she eventually returned to her ideal figure (after six months of sweating it out on the treadmill). But that experience in campus opened her eyes to one harsh reality in life: That people judge you by your looks.

Sure, it is still best to have a good, kind and loving heart. But life is not a fairy tale. As Dr. Vicki Belo learned early in life, "appearance often affect the way people treat you" – sad to say.

And it was for this reason that she decided to become a dermatologist – "so that I can make people look good."

When she was still an intern at the Makati Medical Center, most people (even doctors) looked down on dermatologists. Everyone had this mistaken notion that dermatologist were only there to prick pimples. They didn’t know that dermatologists also worked on other tropical skin diseases – like tuberculosis of the skin, for instance.

For further studies, she went to Harvard to learn everything there is to know about laser treatment which can remove warts, keloids, scars, and birthmarks.

Dr. Belo was actually the first to bring a laser machine here in the Philippines – to the envy of other dermatologists. "They all got mad at me because they thought I disrupted the system," claims Vicki.

Competitors in the dermatological arena may not look too kindly on her, but Dr. Vicki Belo is definitely the toast of movie stars – especially when she went into liposuction.

(Next: Why most celebrities flock to Dr. Belo).