Louisiana tv station does a story on Ultrashape, and tells how it is different from former fat reduction options

Check out this news story, out of Louisiana USA, WLTV station talks to different medical professionals about Ultrashape, and there is a short video online about Ultrashape you can watch -

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl052108ultrashape.17d480d9.html

which states -

"Weight Loss Wednesday: Ultrashape claims to melt fat non-evasively
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Meg Farris / WWL-TV Medical Reporter

It's the most common procedure for body contouring in the United States each year, with hundreds of thousand of people going into the operating room to have pockets of fat surgically removed by liposuction.
But now there is new technology being used to sculpt the body and melt fat. It's being used around the world, from Australia to Europe and Israel. People in the U.S. even go to Canada and Mexico to have it done.
“This is an incredible breakthrough,” said local dermatologic surgeon William Coleman. “This is a totally different thing than anything else that's ever been available.”

There are no incisions or down time because Ultrashape is done completely on the outside of the body. We're all familiar with doctors using ultrasound to see an unborn child or the beating heart. But now ultrasound is being used to melt fat and reduce bulges.
Metairie plastic and reconstructive surgeon David Jansen says local doctors are excited by the prospects.
“Because we are all progressing together toward minimal down time procedures, so I'm waiting on the sidelines a little bit until I see more dramatic improvements and then I'm going to hop in.”
Last year one of the premier scientific journals, Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, featured an article on Ultrashape. In before and after photographs, the treatments with Ultrashape diminished the size of men's breasts, women's stomach areas and the outer thighs. The study concluded that Ultrashape was very effective for thin people who wanted to get rid of local areas of fat deposits, and who wanted to improve body contouring. But the research showed it is not a treatment for obesity.

“One of the advantages that I see, based on the studies, is that it requires fewer treatments,” said dermatologist Patricia Farris.
“Many of the devices we use to body sculpt now take eight, 10 or 12 treatments. In these studies they did only three treatments, and they did them at one-month intervals and the before and after pictures were pretty impressive,” she said.
Doctors are quick to point out that this is totally different from Endermologie or other external massaging machines used by doctors or spas. Those machines swell fat to temporarily camouflage cellulite. And while Ultrashape has been in other countries for years, it's not yet approved in the United States, but is going through the Food and Drug Administration safety process now. Some doctors have questions about what happens to the toxins and fat liquefied in the body.
“Now it's going to break open the fat cells and release the contents of all those triglycerides within the fat cells, not necessarily into the blood, but into perhaps the spaces in between the cells,” said Henri Roca, a family and integrative medicine specialist with LSU Health Sciences Center.
“This is an issue, since we don't know what that will cause.”
The makers of Ultrashape cite studies published in scientific journals suggesting that triglycerides do not accumulate in the blood or liver.
“So far there haven't been any significant problems,” Coleman said. “It's been used very conservatively, but the problems that have been occurring are mainly small burns and that sort of thing.”
Coleman already knows his clinic in Metairie will be one of the U.S. test sites for Ultrashape, but there is no word on when that will be. For now, people from the U.S. who want a quick fix to lumps and bulges will need a passport to travel to one of the countries where it is available.

Ultrashape is not lipodissolve, it is not fig, it is not injections, it uses ultrasound.

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Ultrashape ultrashape contour ultrashape blog fda ultrashape approval .

Fig the company files for bankruptcy who offered lipodissolve injections and FDA statement re:NOT approved fat injections KVBC TV

According to the www.fig.com website, that company has now closed their doors.

Here is what their website says, as of December 29 2007 -

ALSO please note that FIG branch is OPEN in Costa Mesa California as of February 10, 2008, do not know how that 1 office is staying open, if the other centers have closed? It may close soon too? Who knows? But read below and you may also want to beware -


We are sorry to report that, due to economic conditions beyond our control, fig. ceased operations on December 7, 2007. The company closed the doors of 17 of its 18 centers around the country. The only center that will remain open is the Costa Mesa, CA facility, which is an independently owned and operated center.

The company is currently consulting with counsel and will likely seek legal relief under the bankruptcy code to ensure it preserves all options including the ability to reorganize and continue operations.

Current patients undergoing treatment will be contacted by the company regarding continued treatment options or making a refund claim. Please check this web site for the latest information.

I wonder why they are no longer in business? Can current customers get a refund? Were customers happy with their results?



FDA's statement to Healthline 3 Las Vegas TV station regarding lipo-dissolve
Sep 20, 2007 02:20 PM

We are aware of the practice of using Lipo-Dissolve and are investigating and evaluating it. It is NOT FDA approved.
In fact, there are no FDA-approved drugs with an approved indication to dissolve fat and FDA cannot assure the safety and efficacy of these types of drugs.

Consumers need to know that this is a buyer-beware situation. These are unapproved drugs for unapproved uses and we can't guarantee consumers' safety. "
Karen Riley
FDA Office of Public Affairs
(301) 827- 6244

Go to http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?s=7106505 to view this KVBC TV Las Vegas story.

Ultrashape is discussed in the November issue of ALLURE magazine

Ultrashape is discussed in the November issue of Allure magazine, & here it is in its entirety -
http://www.ultrashape.com/data/uploads/InTheNews/AllureJoanKronarticleNovember2007.pdf
Ultrashape, liposonix, lipodissolve, fig, lipostabil, lipozap, medsculpt are all in the article entitled FAT CHANCE and are all discussed, and several patients are quoted in this article. And blogs are also mentioned and quoted from paying customers patients. Some of their stories and experiences are alarming. You can also go to http://www.ultrashape.com/in_the_news.aspx?newsId=10667 to view the latest in ways people are trying very hard to lose inches.

UltraShape article is discussed in ALLURE Novemeber 2007 article, JLo on cover

UltraShape contour is discussed in Allure magazine Novemeber 2007 article, (Jennifer Lopez is on the cover). Other options in fighting the bulge are also discussed in addition to Ultrashape, inc. Liposonix and Lipodissolve or fig. The future of battling the bulge inc. a couple US University studies are also introduced, and I do and we all look forward to their results down the road, esp. if it is not surgical, nor via a needle, to lose fat.

And here is a follow up post from the writer of the Allure magazine article -

"Fat-Melting Mayhem"
"Piece of cake..." "I could not be happier..." "Did not hurt whatsoever..." Who is saying this about the fat-melting shots called lipodissolve? You may be surprised. .
By Joan Kron

"Women who read "Fat Chance" [Allure, November], about fat-melting injections, may be surprised to learn that employees working for some clinics that offer the controversial fat-melting shots lipodissolve have been submitting positive reviews about the experience on the Internet. RealSelf.com, a skin-care and cosmetic surgery website, received these submissions, and alerted Allure.

Lipodissolve uses chemicals that are not FDA-approved for injection under the skin. The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts tried to greatly restrict its use this summer, after receiving numerous complaints. (Its use is already prohibited in Brazil and Canada—and doctors using the lipodissolve procedure in the United Kingdom can no longer seek malpractice coverage from the Medical Protection Society.) In an October 9, 2007 news release issued by the St. Louis Better Business Bureau, where 90 complaints about lipodissolve have been received this year, the BBB stated that complainants "allege the procedure is ineffective and caused swelling and pain," and that Fig (formerly known as Advanced Lipo Dissolve), a major chain of lipodissolve clinics, made it difficult for them to "obtain refunds."

Essentially, lipodissolve clinics are practicing "human experimentation, due to the lack of significant data to support the claims to the consumer," says Rod Rohrich, chief of plastic surgery at the University of Texas, Southwest Medical Center.

Meanwhile, the editors of RealSelf.com received approximately 109 comments on the treatment—61 percent of which are negative; 39 percent positive. RealSelf.com suspected that several of the positive submissions might have been written by the people at companies that offer lipodissolve. A trace of computer IP addresses then revealed that the majority of these statements stemmed from employees of Fig, and a few came from employees of another lipodissolve clinic, MedSculpt. Both are clinics with multiple locations in the United States.
When asked to respond to these accusations, Fig's chief marketing officer, Rob Marandino, sent Allure a statement dated October 23, 2007, saying, "Several months ago, it became clear that current and prospective lipodissolve patients were actively utilizing the online space to post queries about the procedure, treatment expectations, and their own personal experiences. Many Fig employees and satisfied Fig patients responded to queries to provide accurate information about the procedure, address concerns, and share their own experiences.

"We quickly realized, through numerous conversations with the editorial staff of RealSelf.com that although some Fig employees were appropriately representing themselves and their professional affiliation, others were not. This clearly violates our company's online communications policy, which ensures transparency and accuracy, and all employees were reminded of our stringent guidelines. To our knowledge, this situation was resolved, and Fig employees are properly representing ourselves in online posts...We will continue to work with RealSelf.com to ensure that we are meeting its terms of use."

MedSculpt Chief Executive Officer Gary F. Jonas emailed Allure on October 24, 2007, saying, "It was not the intention of any of our employees to mislead the public in any way, and as of today, we will send out a policy statement indicating that any blog posting by them should indicate that they are currently a [MedSculpt] employee—even if their treatments may have occurred prior to employment...I can assure you that any subsequent submission to blogs will state that they are employees."

The bottom line: No matter what these companies' policies state, potential lipodissolve patients have no way of verifying the authenticity of any user-generated post about the procedure they read online—so they should be skeptical. In fact, visitors' reactions on RealSelf.com demonstrate that people are often "suspicious of glowingly positive reviews," says Eric Kennedy, head of product for the site.
To learn more about lipodissolve, read "Fat Chance" in the November issue of Allure, and the ASAPS's warning about fat-melting injections "

To view it in its entirety, click on -
http://www.allure.com/magazine/2007/11/fat_melting