Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 12, 1994 TAG: 9401120088
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Sandra Brown Kelly
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They reduced the thighs by one-half inch and increased the marketing potential of fat-melting creams by who knows how much.
Rather than a world of thin thighs, the findings more likely mean fat city for multilevel marketers who envision thousands of potential customers - mainly women who fear their bodies aren't attractive and who will rush for the latest quick fix.
The sales potential is so great that look-alike products have hit the market, old cellulite-fighting creams have been revamped and lawsuits have been filed as companies argue who can claim what in the dimpled-thigh business.
Also, the Food and Drug Administration is said to be looking into the products, not to determine if the claims about them are true, but to determine if they products are safe.
No one knows if there are long-term effects from the use of the creams, but one woman dropped out of the five-week test because her skin got irritated.
Researchers tested one thigh of each woman with a cream containing 2 percent aminophylline, a drug usually used to treat asthma. A placebo cream was used on the other thigh. After five weeks the treated thighs had shrunk an average of one-half inch.
Developers of the product reported the findings at an obesity conference in Milwaukee this fall. An Associated Press reporter heard them and wrote about their findings. Since then, the developers have talked about the cream in more popular places, such as the "Larry King Live" show.
The cream was developed by two doctors, Frank Greenway of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and George Bray, director of Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Dr. Bruce Frome, the financial backer who appeared with Larry King on Jan. 5, said his involvement was that he made their formula work.
But he doesn't know how it works.
"The way it works is, we're not sure, exactly, but when you rub the cream on your thigh, thighs that are dimpled or rippled, it either smooths out the hills or it raises the troughs, and you get a smoothing out," Frome told Larry King.
The aminophylline cream is being marketed under two names, Smooth Contours and Cellution.
He said Herbalife and The Right Solution, which are multilevel marketing companies, were selling a version of the cream along with Nutri System Weight Loss Centers.
The Roanoke Nutri-System shop doesn't have the product yet, but is compiling a waiting list of customers.
The text of the Larry King show shows that Frome didn't make any major claims about the product, except that it smoothed skin. He said it did not make fat disappear, but a stronger solution of the drug might. Some products claim that the cream signals cells to release their fat and the fat is eliminated.
Creams already on the market or getting there go by names such as Cellu-Var, Skinny Dip, Doctor's Cellulite Cream, Thermojetics Body Toning Cream and TNT.
Some are promoted to be used with other products, such as Herbalife's Thermojetics. And the claims are different, but the active ingredients in the creams are similar.
They rely on aminophylline and another asthma treatment drug, theophylline.
Whether described as fat-melting, tightening or contouring, the creams are touted as a way to erase dimples in thighs, fight cellulite, lose inches without dieting.
Roanoke Valley resident Phil Zulli, who with his wife, Peggy, markets TNT (Tone 'N Tighten) for First Fitness International Inc., says his product will erase cellulite, tone saggy loose skin, minimize fatty areas and help eliminate stretch marks and varicose veins.
Fitness trainer Sam Hall is selling Cellution at $29.95 for four ounces (which lasts four to six weeks) through his company, Sampson Marketing, and through Salem Fitness Center.
Hall said he hasn't tried the cream and doesn't know anyone who has, but he has heard that "men have started to use the product on double chins and bellies."
Like Zulli, Hall is searching for other people who want to sell the product. If he brings them into the company, he gets a percentage of their earnings, which is the way it works in network marketing.
And nothing is better for marketing than something that can be habit-forming.
The damper on the dimple eliminators might be that if you stop using the creams, your dimples will start coming back.
Frome said they'll come back in three to seven days.
by CNB