Ingredients Used in Mesotherapy
There are a vast number of different ingredients that may be incorporated into your mesotherapy injections. The ingredients used are very dependent on the condition that you are undergoing mesotherapy to resolve, as well as the part of the body you wish to have treatment on. These points also determine the concentrations of each of the ingredients.
Ingredients in the mesotherapy injections must have obtained approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the purposes of mesotherapy. It is not legal for a practitioner to use any ingredients unless their purpose has been approved. It is therefore important that you leave your consultation with a list of all the ingredients the mesotherapist plans to use on you. You can then research each to ensure that they have got FDA approval for use in mesotherapy procedures.
Which Ingredients are Most Commonly Used?
Some of the better-known ingredients that may be used in mesotherapy are caffeine, hyaluronic acid, L-carnitine, multi-vitamins and artichoke extract. Furthermore, below is a list of ingredients that are more commonly used in the injections:
- Hyaluronidase – This ingredient is an enzyme that is naturally present in the human body and works to break down hyaluronic acid. The hyaluronidase also makes the body tissues more permeable to the other ingredients in the mesotherapy injections. Another purpose of this enzyme is that it is able to break down cellulite to give the skin a smoother appearance. This is possible as cellulite is due to connective tissue, which contains a lot of hyaluronic acid.
- L-Carnitine – This particular ingredient helps remove fat from fat cells and transport it to the mitochondria. The mitochondria are small components of cells in the body that utilise fatty acids to create energy. This means that the fat is burnt off and lost.
- Phosphatidylcholine (PC) – This is an anti-oxidant that is used in mesotherapy, as it is known to dissolve fat and make it soluble in water. This allows the fat to be eliminated from the body in stools or urine.
- Deoxycholate (DC) – DC is a naturally occurring enzyme in the body. It is usually in bile to break down fat from the diet. In mesotherapy, DC is used to complement PC in making the fat more water soluble to aid its removal from the body when you go to the toilet.
- Aminophylline – This ingredient acts in a similar way to caffeine. It is used in mesotherapy to stimulate the destruction of fat in cells. Aminophylline also makes capillaries widen to allow more oxygen and nutrients to reach the tissues. This ingredient must be used at a relatively low concentration (20 mg/ml) as side effects, such as diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, have been observed at higher doses.
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