Laser treatment: Zap those fat cells

No diet, no exercise, no surgery - you can knock off excess weight just by shooting lasers into flabby areas.

You can get in shape within an hour without diet, exercise or surgery, claimed companies at a show in Dubai.

Exhibitors at the Dubai Congress on Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medicine (DCAAAM) showed off technology that breaks down fat by shooting sound and pressure waves or lasers into the body’s chubby areas. The destroyed fat cells seep between surrounding tissue spaces and leave the body with sweat and urine, the medical companies explained.

Though full treatments run over a few weeks, results can be seen and felt within the first hour of undergoing the ultrasound or laser sessions, according to the marketing literature of German cosmetic manufacturer Medilab, US medical firm Erchonia and Italian research firm Promoitalia.

They all claimed the procedures are painless, safe and free of side effects. According to Medilab’s handout for its Beautytek Avita line, it may “be possible to see a reduction in size of a few centimetres after just the first session”.

PromoItalia’s brochure for its Proslimet “beauty instrument” claims “perimetric [size] reduction of treated area up to 2cm after only one session”. And a profile of Erchonia’s Zerona laser machine said some patients lost up to nine inches in its two-week “protocol clinic trials”. Industry sources said such treatments cost between Dh10,000 and Dh12,000 for three months, or Dh1,000 to Dh1,500 for each one-hour session every week. In USA, the cost of a Zerona treatment ranges from $2,000 (Dh7,346) to $3,500 (Dh12,880) for the six sessions.