09:09 AM CST on Thursday, February 10, 2005

Meg Farris / Medical Reporter

When most people lose weight, the inches seem to come off in all the wrong places. No matter how hard you try, you still may have those unsightly love handles or weighty-looking hips.

Before and After cream use - accompanied with a weight loss program.

Until recently the prevailing opinion was that only surgical liposuction could get rid of those stubborn pockets. Now, some doctors say a cream can help those who are already in the process of taking off the pounds.

The cream is called Smooth Contours and for those who are actively losing weight, it can help make sure those pounds are removed where you want them.

Dr. Lou Martin of the LSU Health Sciences Center said the secret is that the cream helps signal fat receptors in the stubborn area to let go of the fat cells.

Weight loss doctors cite scientific research honed over a 10-year period in the late 80s and early 90s at UCLA. That research showed that an over the counter asthma medication called aminophylline, when injected into fat cells, caused them to release fat. The doctors then developed a way to put that medication into a cream.

Dr. Bill Raum, who works at the Touro Weight Management Center, was one of the researchers who worked on the cream at UCLA.

He said the cream works if you are actively losing weight, by signaling the body as to where the burned fat cells should come from.

He stresses that if you are gaining weight, or if you aren’t losing weight either surgically or through an exercise program, the cream will have no effect.

WWL-TV

Smooth Contours product

“You have to be losing weight and once your weight is stable, there’s no reason to continue using it,” he said. “It’s not going to do anything beyond that.”

Raum also said that the product will not take away the deep internal fat, but merely the cosmetic fat just below the skin’s surface. Though the studies were done on the thighs, Raum said new research that has not yet been released shows that it also works on other areas.

So why has Smooth Contours remained such a secret – especially since it has been available for nearly 10 years?

“These were university-type professors that initially found this out and not really looking for any financial reward,” said Dr. Raum. “So, their level of marketing and how they handled the stuff was not to that level.”

In fact, Raum said that in addition, many fake thigh creams came out that didn’t work, giving their research a bad name.

Doctors, along with bocemarketing, the group that markets Smooth Contours, said that patents and even the name Smooth Contours were stolen and that copycats are being sold today.

Raum said the cream should never be rubbed on breasts as a means of reduction, nor should pregnant or nursing women use it.

He said Smooth Contours can be taken safely because it isn’t detected in the blood stream.

He also suggests that those using Smooth Contours, use the cream and wear lycra or heavy elasticized materials at night.