Zerona: The Fat Loss Laser, Does It Work?

by David Kiley (RSS feed)
Apr 21st 2010 at 11:01AM

Losing weight is a national pastime in the U.S. For a country that has become the most obese on the planet, we spend an awful lot of money, more than any other nation, trying to slim down.

Into that storm of desperation and profits, a relatively new cold-laser treatment, called Zerona, is growing in popularity. Zerona is the technique which is licensed to a growing number of plastic surgery clinics. It promises to shape and slim the body with no cutting or liposuction type approaches. As the laser goes to work on the fat cells, the pitch goes, the fat is released into the body, and then excreted away.

Zerona is currently available in a variety of places including The Amaya Clinic in Houston; Young Medical Spa in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania; Javani Medical Spa in Sugarland,Texas and Advanced Health Concepts, San Marino, California.

Zerona has also been talked up on lots of the network morning shows including CBS The Early Show; Fox and others.

A review of information on Zerona shows the following. It may have some effect on already fairly fit people who are obsessing about small pockets of hard to move fat. If you are a size-4 woman trying to get down to a size 2, something like Zerona combined with a push on exercise and diet might just squeeze you into a size-2 Vera Wang. But don't bend over to fix your loose heel. In the past, these folks would have turned to liposuction. Zerona, since it is done without breaking the skin, is getting high trial among the lipo set.

There are also a lot of complaints on Internet boards that Zerona has been ineffective. It is not uncommon for procedures like this to draw a lot of complaints for two big reasons. First, there is a great deal of variability among patients' bodies. Bodies react differently to these kinds of procedures. The treatment calls for patients to drink lots of water after the procedures to assist the fat flush. It also calls for them to cut way back on fat in their diet and to exercise more. Patients who do all that probably didn't need the treatment in the first place, and are probably doing more good with the low-fat eating and exercise than paying for Zerona. Second, medical "spas" are in the business of making money, not turning away revenue. A lot of facilities will take patients who are not good candidates for lipo or Zerona. A lot of these patients have too much weight to lose for something like Zerona to be effective. And many who have small amounts of fat to lose will not keep the dietary and exercise commitments the treatment protocol calls for.

Zerona is not an FDA approved treatment. Cost is about $3,500 for six sessions. Treatments are every other day for two weeks. The company claims that patients lose an average of 3.5 inches to the area treated, such as waist, thighs or chest. That's awfully hard to verify. Judging from the level of Internet complaints, though, it seems the happiest customers are those who can easily afford for it not to work.

Tags: beauty treatments, beauty trends, cold laser, cosmetic surgery, fat laser, fat loss, laser, liposuction, Zerona

Filed under: Services

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

David A. Apr 21st 2010 5:30PM

Hi,

My name is Dave and I work with Erchonia. I wanted to clear up a few facts about Zerona that are left unclear. None of the news segments Zerona has been featured on (including CBS Early Show or FOX) have been paid for or sponsored by them in any way. These were purely editorial segments based on media interest in the fact that doctors all over the country are using this new device to remove fat non-invasively.

Also, the 3.5 inches lost came from a double blind, randomized, multi-site and placebo controlled study which revealed that in two weeks of trials with the ZERONA laser – without surgery, diet restrictions or any other adjuncts – patients lost an average of 3.65 inches from their waists, hips and thighs. That study can be found here http://www.sbmi.com/pdf/LowLevelLaserTherapy2009.pdf

Thanks!

reallytorkedoff Apr 21st 2010 7:48PM

Zerona is not an FDA approved treatment.

Cost is about $3,500 for six sessions.

These two statements should be enough to cause potential clients to really research this treatment before moving forward.

Also, how about checking with your doctor first?

lvudean May 20th 2010 9:38PM

I had this procedure done and it was a rather disappointing loss of 3500.00. I got 12 treatments for the cost so I was sure that I would see a significant difference.I was diligent with following the treatments, the vitamins, and the exercise and I didn't have any difference at all. Aside from the money I spent I ended up losing a significant amount of time in commuting to and from the facility and for the time I had in receiving the treatment, not to mention gas money. Save your money.