by Martin Miron

Dr. Juanita Jenyons, owner of Dr. Jenyons’ Medical Weight Loss & Rejuvenation Center, in Bayonne, has been in practice for 30 years, and uses minimally invasive procedures onsite to help patients lose weight, keep it off and sculpt their bodies to achieve beauty goals and counter the effects of aging.

Jenyons moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic when she was only 10, but already her future career was taking shape. “Circumstances in my community led me to pledge to myself that I wanted to help women,” she recalls. “Coming to this country afforded me the opportunity to do so, and I wanted to do it through medicine.”

She was not daunted by her humble beginnings, saying, “This is the land of opportunity. People say, ‘You’re reaching pretty high, wanting to become a doctor.’ For some, when people challenge you it oppresses you, but for other people, when you are challenged it motivates you. It 

was my motivation to prove people wrong—that if I wanted something I was going for it. I worked very hard and studied and became a nurse first as a segue; I had to work my way up to medical school at Dartmouth.”

Jenyons practiced first in NYC as an OB/GYN and even then, her approach was holistic. “I know about doing things in a natural way. I was always aware of the side effects of prescription drugs,” she says. “Medicine is great, but if there is an alternative, I’ve always been open to that.” Due to increasing demands on her time, she decided to concentrate her practice on gynecology, using natural approaches toward menopause such as supplementation and lifestyle modification, instead of “going straight to the hormones.”

Jenyons leveraged her existing patient base and that of her physician husband, who has an internal medicine practice, and moved from New York to New Jersey to open Dr. Jenyons’ Medical Weight Loss & 

Rejuvenation Center in 2007. She explains, “I knew it would take time, but now we are doing very, very well. When you show someone how to lose weight, you also show them how to eat for life.”

Her approach is unique in that it is so comprehensive. “Some places just show you how to lose weight and goodbye. Other places administer liposuction and other aesthetic stuff and goodbye,” she says. “There’s nothing about your health, nothing about your lifestyle. I combine both because I help you to lose weight and I also show you how to maintain it. I show you what you can eat in a healthy way, based on your metabolism.”

But Jenyons doesn’t stop there, noting, “It’s very rare that somebody loses weight and they don’t have something they want to fix. So I do body contouring in a minimally invasive way, without having to go under a general anesthetic. It’s a nice combination that we offer in the office.”

She uses a laser liposuction technique which requires only local anesthesia and melts fat into a liquid form that can be removed from the chin, belly and hips, using very small, less-invasive instruments than traditional liposuction. She also uses an external radio frequency treatment that addresses the fat underneath and tightens the skin, and says, “They are very effective for those that don’t want any cuts at all.”

In seeking the best methods of weight reduction, Jenyons says, “My research led me to the metabolic diet, or HCG diet. The reason I like the method is because I feel it is more natural and freer of side effects. HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, is a natural hormone that we produce in small amounts in the body. Women produce it in high amounts when they are pregnant and I, being an OB/ GYN, know that. Clearly, this has to be done under the supervision of a physician, and I do a medical evaluation to be sure that the person can use it.”

The use of HCG is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but not specifically for weight loss. It can legally be used “off label” (for alternate uses) by medical professionals. That’s why some local governments have restricted its general use. Jenyons says, “What happens with the over-the-counter HCG is that it’s not the real medicine. It’s just supplementation that increases your own body’s HCG. So it’s not as effective a treatment. The reason I think it should be administered under a doctor’s supervision is that we can take a medical history and determine if it is safe for the person to use.”

To maintain the weight loss, Jenyons points out, “We give you a healthy diet based on personal metabolism. If your metabolism says that you can only eat 1,800 calories, we need to show you what that looks like in good food. A lot of people regain their weight loss because they don’t have that missing piece.”

Dr. Jenyons’ Medical Weight Loss & Rejuvenation Center is located at 449 Ave. C, in Bayonne, NJ. For more information and appointments, call 201-844-6462 or visit DrJenyons.com.

Martin Miron is a regular contributor to Natural Awakenings.