Mesotherapy? Does it work?!
Question:
Mesotherapy? Does it work?
Has anyone ever tried mesotherapy for cellulite. Does it work?
Answers:
Mesotherapy (from Greek mesos, "middle", and therapy from Greek therapeia, "to treat medically") is a non-surgical cosmetic medicine treatment. Mesotherapy employ the technique of multiple injections of pharmaceutical and homeopathic medications, plant extracts, vitamins, and other ingredients into the subcutaneous fat. Mesotherapy injections are purported to target adipose fat cells, apparently by inducing rupture and cell death among adipocytes. [1]
Mesotherapy treatments have been performed throughout Europe, South America, and more recently the United States for over fifty years. However, physicians have been concerned about both the efficacy and safety of mesotherapy, arguing that a lack of scientific study makes mesotherapy a fad with potentially dangerous side effects. "There is simply no data, no science and no information, to my knowledge, that mesotherapy works," according to Rod Rohrich, M.D., Chairman, Dept. of Plastic Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons issued a position statement not endorsing mesotherapy because to date, there has been no established mechanism of action, demonstrated efficacy, or established safety profile with any of the drugs used in mesotherapy.
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." USAToday 8/4/2004. It is currently banned in a number of South American countries. Even Brazil, which is less strict than the USA in drug approvals, has banned the drug for these purposes. USAToday 8/4/2004