Does Cryolipolysis Cause Cancer?
Cryolipolysis has been all the rage in recent diet trends. They call it an alternative to traditional liposuction that does not require recovery time, incisions, injections, or any of the other common complications. Prices generally run between $500 and $700 per area per procedure, and they estimate that it could take anywhere from 3-5 treatments or more for the average patient to achieve the same benefits as lipo, making it just as expensive if not more so. But some would pay to avoid surgery. So does Cryolipolysis actually work?
About Cryolipolysis
Cryolipolysis has limited studies. Actually, it has one study conducted on 32 patients rather recently. 18 of those patients showed a 22% decrease in the area treated 2-3 months after the actual treatment. This is a relatively low success rate, just above 50%, which is not acceptable. And they obviously have not replicated it. They claim to have assessed possible side effects. But those assessments run in direct contradiction with past studies conducted on this same machine. Before, they were using it as a way to lower skin temperatures during laser surgery to avoid burning. It was never studied on weight loss previous to this, and it was never shown to have any effect on fat, just the skin. Now they claim it has no effect on the skin, just fat.
But while we can debate the possibilities and weight loss all day, that remains for studies to show. One concern that many informed consumers are having is the side effects. Yes, it sounds like a dream, albeit an expensive dream. You don’t have to have surgery, there is no down time, there are no needles or injections, how could you get anything better?
The End Conclusion
Past studies have demonstrated the idea that cold temperatures could actually damage cells and lead to future bouts with cancer. Many seasoned athletes with experts around them do not drink cold water even during workouts. They drink luke warm drinks because of this fact. And of course, frost bite, which could result from cold temperatures just as burns could result from a laser treatment, could cause serious cell damage that may never actually go away. Cancer of course develops over time, even years or centuries. Cryolipolysis was only introduced within the past few years as a weight loss technology without laser technology as the key component. So they have not established the dangers, and even if it is targeting fat cells, which is unlikely, they have not established whether damaging those fat cells could lead to serious problems like cancer. But while surgery may be inconvenient, it has been proven to be relatively safe in that particular area. I wouldn’t suggest surgery. But it has better odds it would seem than this.