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Fat-freezing 'slurry' hyped as next big thing in weight loss

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The latest magic bullet in the world of fat loss may not be diet or exercise but an injectable ice solution called a “slurry.” Body Sculpture Resistance Machine

Fat-freezing

The scientists who brought the world the popular but controversial fat freezing procedure “CoolSculpting” say they have a new way to cut back pounds that doesn’t involve surgery.

Researchers at a Massachusetts General Hospital laboratory claim the new method “has the potential to become one of the most performed cosmetic procedures in plastic surgery,” according to their study published last week in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

The injected ice slurry method is a “more efficient and effective,” fat-removal procedure, or cryolipolysis, than CoolSculpting, researchers say. CoolSculpting involves freezing and killing fat cells using a device pressed to the surface of the skin.

The new, injectable method is not yet approved for human use and so far has only been tested on pigs.

The slurry solution — containing saline and the common food ingredient glycerol — is injected into the undesired fat tissue, where it then causes the fat cells to crystallize and die. The fat’s thickness gradually shrinks and there is “no scarring or damage to surrounding tissue,” according to the paper.

“The appeal of this technique is that it’s easy and convenient to do,” says lead study author dermatologist Lilit Garibyan, Ph.D., an investigator in the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Mass General and the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

“With CoolSculpting, which is a topical cooling technique, the patient has to sit there for almost an hour for enough heat to diffuse from the fat underneath the skin,” Garibyan adds in statement. “With this new technique the doctor can do a simple injection that takes just less than a minute, the patient can go home, and then the fat gradually disappears.”

If incorrectly injected, says study co-author Dr. Rox Anderson, the slurry solution won’t cause much, if any, harm. “Even if the slurry is injected into other tissue such as muscle, there is no significant injury,” Anderson says.

Fat-freezing

Skin Cleanser Machine Meanwhile, Brooke Shields swears by WarmSculpting.