Mesotherapy: Another 'iffy' fat loss treatment

I've been seeing a lot of ads for various 'Mesotherapy Clinics' in one of my local newspapers. From what I've read about it, all I can say is be careful if you choose to try this new weight loss procedure...

(USAToday.com) - Critics say mesotherapy offers slim chance

Call it "hope in a needle." Mesotherapy, the latest fat-melting fad, is a half-century-old technique from France that involves hundreds of injections and is touted as an alternative to liposuction.

"It's more than hope in a bottle," says Marion Shapiro, a retired emergency room doctor in New York who has started a new career as a "mesotherapist," injecting people with a cocktail of plant extracts, vitamins and medications (such as a drug for treating asthma). The concoction is supposed to stimulate fat cells to shed fat.

"Our results are not surgical, there are fewer complications and less downtime, and that's why mesotherapy is going to become more popular than liposuction," Shapiro says.

It's called mesotherapy because the injections go under the skin and are absorbed by the mesodermal, or middle, layer. Then, you're supposed to shed weight the same way you do when you diet and exercise, excreting fat in waste. But you can still regain the weight.

Singer Roberta Flack is the most famous celebrity to endorse the procedure. She told ABC's 20/20 last year that she lost 40 pounds after a year of treatment, although she also dieted and exercised.

Mesotherapy was developed in France in 1952 and has long been popular with the European rich and famous. But it never caught on in the USA, where medical skepticism about its efficacy and safety is widespread. Among other concerns, some of the drugs involved are intended to treat something entirely different.

Flack's doctor, Lionel Bissoon, learned the specialty in France five years ago and is now the leading advocate here. He says the procedure can be used as a delivery system for more than fighting fat. "We can treat migraine headaches, back pain, constipation, sports-medicine injuries, arthritis."

But many dermatologists and plastic surgeons are alarmed about the growing profile of mesotherapy. "No one says exactly what they put into the (syringe)," says Naomi Lawrence, a derma-surgeon at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. "One drug they often use, phosphatidylcholin, is unpredictable and causes extreme inflammation and swelling where injected. It is not a benign drug."

Even Brazil, which is less strict than the USA in drug approvals, has banned the drug for these purposes.

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(ABCNews.com) - Shot in the Dark?

Mesotherapy May Melt Away Fat, But Some Question Whether It’s Safe

If you're on a quest for the body beautiful, you've got a staggering variety of pills, potions and surgeries to help you shed inches or erase cellulite if exercise, diet or your genes fail you. And now there's a new and increasingly popular weapon in the anti-fat arsenal.

A growing number of people are deciding to have doctors inject them with a cocktail of drugs, vitamins and supplements in hopes of reshaping their bodies.

It's a procedure called mesotherapy, and it involves undergoing hundreds of injections, once a week, for several weeks. The drugs are injected into the mesodermal — or middle — layer of the skin.

The technique was pioneered in France by Dr. Michel Pistor, and has been performed there since 1952. But it's just begun to attract practitioners and clients in the United States in the past few years.

Dr. Lionel Bissoon, who learned the technique in France five years ago, has become America's leading expert and advocate of mesotherapy.

Bissoon says mesotherapy — over the course of 10 sessions — blocks our ability to store fat and stimulates our ability to burn it up. He says a physician can target specific areas of fat by injecting a blend of medications commonly used for asthma and high blood pressure along with vitamins and supplements directly into a specific area of the body.

A single session can cost as much as $500, so a full course of treatment is a substantial investment. But it seems to be catching on. Bissoon, who has practices in New York, Florida and California, says his clients range from celebrities and CEOs to secretaries.

Bissoon claims the fat winds up in the muscle, where it's used for energy. It does sound too good to be true, especially since Bissoon says he refuses to take patients who won't exercise or follow a healthy diet.

But his patients seem to be happy with the results. Bissoon's most famous client is Roberta Flack. The superstar crooner had a long battle with weight and thought that her extra pounds were indeed killing her softly.

"When you're young and you're overweight, it's just there. After you pass a certain point in your life, well, gravity takes over. And you have a fat stomach that has rolls on top of rolls on top of rolls. And you can't breathe with that," Flack said.

Since starting mesotherapy last year — along with exercise and changing her diet — Flack has lost more than 40 pounds.

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