By HELEN BAUM

Inventor Alex Chiu insists he's discovered the Fountain of Youth -- an amazing device that smoothes away wrinkles, cures disease and lets you live thousands of years!

And his gadget will also make you beautiful -- as gorgeous as his favorite star Alicia Silverstone, he claims.

"My devices," says the 31-year-old Chinese Chiu, "are believed to alter the aging process -- to turn a person physically younger. They are believed to allow humans to stay physically young forever, cure various kinds of illnesses and diseases, and improve health."

His astonishing treatment is simple and safe. All the patient has to do is wear special magnetic rings and braces on the fingers and toes.

And this modern-day Ponce de Leon -- the famed Spanish explorer who searched for the Fountain of Youth -- has an armload of testimonials about the miraculous gizmos, which use the body's own magnetic field to zap disease, battle aging to a halt -- and put the POW back in your sex life!

"I am so excited about this I am speechless," says John, 49, whose doctors were threatening to chop off his feet because they thought he'd get gangrene from advanced diabetes.

"I am now out of the wheelchair for the first time in five years," John says, "walking again like some miracle has happened to me."

A cured cocaine addict named Bob says he "went from crackhead back to being a second-grade teacher in a matter of weeks -- just by wearing Chiu's Eternal Life Device.

"I owe Alex my job and my life," gushes Bob.

And check out the amazing experience of Hux, whose girlfriend is even more pleased than he is about the power of the rings:

"Ever since I put it on," he says, "I am much stronger! My girlfriend says I'm feeling much bigger and -- wow! I can go for three or four hours now."

One bald woman says her hair's growing back since she's been wearing the rings, and another man claims he's smarter -- and his I.Q. shot up 30 points!

Chiu, who was born in San Francisco, raised in Taiwan, and has a degree from City College in San Francisco, says he received a patent on "the most important invention in the world -- immortality" in 1999.

Read all that Alex had to say in this week's NEWSSTAND ISSUE ON SALE NOW!