Health Check: Freezing the fat

Rebecca Blaha wants to get rid of the extra fat on her belly.

“I can’t get rid of it through diet and exercise,“ she said.

So she’s about to try something new.

It’s called Zeltiq. It’s a procedure that uses special cooling technology to get rid of unwanted fat without surgery.

“When fat gets very cold it essentially melts,“ said dermatologist Michael Kaminer said.

And that’s the basis of Zeltiq. A gel pad is placed over the skin to protect it.

A vacuum-type applicator is applied, which sucks in the targeted area between two cooling panels. The cold temperature breaks down the fat cells without damaging other tissue.

Over the next 2-6 months those fat cells are eliminated through the body’s normal metabolic process, like fat in food.

The best candidate for the procedure is someone close to their ideal body weight who wants to get rid of belly fat, love handles or back fat.

The Zeltiq device is awaiting FDA approval for fat reduction, and clinical trials are underway around the country.

Dermatologist Jeffrey Dover is one of the researchers.

“Eighteen in 32 subjects treating their love handle area, the average person had 22-percent loss of fat or fat layer reduction in that treatment area which when you think about it is a large amount of fat reduction for a totally non-surgical, non-invasive procedure,“ he said.

Michael Liptak was in the study. He had the procedure done on his right love handle. A year later Kaminer is pleased with the result.

“Right through here it’s more sleek, more muscular and on this side it’s more rounder,“ he said.

The Zeltiq procedure takes about an hour for each area that’s treated.

When the procedure is over, patients can get back to their normal lifestyle, which they say is a cool way to fight fat.