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Mesotherapy melts away fat

Maria Fowler and Michelle Savoy
azcentral.com

The latest miracle cure for melting away fat isn't a long shot. Instead, it's a series of short ones, better known as mesotherapy, which is catching on quickly around the country.

Mesotherapy is a course of treatment developed in France by Dr. Michel Pistor, and has been performed there since 1952 with great success. Only recently has it migrated to the United States where practitioners and patients sing its praises.

Take Roberta Flack, for example. After years of battling with weight issues, mesotherapy became the answer she had been waiting for all of her life, and she proudly discussed it on CBS' 48 Hours this past April. Following that initial broadcast, news reports on ABC's 20/20, Good Morning America and others have been investigating the procedure. Even more interest was generated when 48 Hours rebroadcast the Flack segment in August, and the buzz is that people are scrambling to find doctors who perform the procedure.

Currently, only a handful of American MDs have been trained in administering mesotherapy, which involves injecting patients with a cocktail of drugs into the mesodermal layer of skin. Problem areas, like the abdomen, thighs and upper arms, are often the targets. Usually, several dozen injections are given at a single treatment, and the course of treatment varies with each individual, but most require a least 10 treatments to achieve desired results.

The idea is that the combination of vitamins, drugs and supplements, all of which have FDA approval for one purpose or another but not directly for the elimination of fat per se, work together to actually shrink or eliminate fat cells in the body. While the most talked about form of mesotherapy is body sculpting or fat loss, the procedure is used for cellulite treatment, pain relief, acne and many other non-cosmetic purposes.

Scottsdale's Dr. Scott Wasserman is one of the first U.S. doctors trained in mesotherapy and has been performing the procedure at his MesoBeauty Cosmetic Health Institute for a variety of patients. Dr. Wasserman, whose treatment philosophy is closely tied to proper nutrition and exercise in addition to the procedure, agreed to answer some basic questions about mesotherapy for curious azcentral.com users.

http://www.azcentral.com/health/diet/articles/mesotherapy.html