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Interview with Tim Gorksi on radio station
in Perth Australia
Tuesday, July 25, 2000
It's said that there are two certainties in life - death and taxes.
There's probably a third as well.
And that is that you'll make a fortune if you say you have a pill
that will eliminate cellulite.
Cellulite seems to have a special place in the psyche of many
Australian women.
Women's magazines rarely pass an issue without covering it.
I saw one last week which featured paparazzi pictures of well
known female celebrities with those telltale dimpled thighs.
The heading was "Celebrity Cellulite - Yes, there is a God!"
Last year, Australia led the way in embracing a new cellulite
treatment called Cellasene.
The hype was truly amazing and some pharmacies sold out as
soon as the stuff was put on the shelves.
Well things have changed a bit since then.
Some women have wasted hundreds of dollars for no result.
The Federal Trade Commission in the United States has filed a
lawsuit against Rexall Sundown, the makers of Cellasene.
The action charges Rexall Sundown with false and
unsubstantiated claims by making statements such as this:
"Unlike massages and creams, Cellasene works from within,
nutritionally, to help eliminate cellulite at its source."
And the FTC was particularly incensed by the use of one
particular phrase: "The One That Works."
The same words were used to market Cellasene in Australia.
Now the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission is
belatedly investigating Cellasene.
ACCC chairman Professor Alan Fels admitted to the Morning
Show that the body had been slow to him an offer he couldn't
act on Cellasene.
However, he said there had been few complaints in the early
days, but there had been a flood since the FTC court action
became public.
The FTC filed its lawsuit over Cellasene in the US District Court
in Florida where Rexall Sundown is based.
It's about the advertising claims.
Interestingly enough, the action has not been taken in the US
by the Food and Drug Administration which controls the sale of
such treatments.
Similarly, in Australia, Cellasene is being investigated by our
trade regulator, the ACCC, not the body which controls
pharmaceutical treatments.
Dr Timothy Gorski was one of the first commentators in
America to blow the whistle on Cellasene in May last year.
Dr Gorski is a clinical professor at the University of North Texas
and the chairman of the Dallas/Fort Worth Council Against
Health Fraud.
He writes a column called "Healthy Skepticism" which appears
in a number of American publications.
He told the Morning Show that any treatment which claimed to
eliminate cellulite was an unmistakeable fraud.
Dr Gorski said cellulite was simply subcutaneous fat. It was
only because the connective tissue below the skin formed a
lacework or honeycomb pattern that some areas of fat bulged
and gave the appearance of lumpiness.
To get rid of the cellulite it required the same approach as
getting rid of any other form of fat: fewer calories than are
expended over a long enough period of time.
The Morning Show was unsuccessful in speaking to one of the
main promoters of Cellasene in Australia, Sydney medical
practitioner, Dr Graham Malouf.
Dr Malouf has an hour long program on Radio Station 2KY in
Sydney each week.
So he's good at talking. But not today.
When Cellasene works from within was released onto the
Australian market, Dr Malouf did the clinical trials.
He appeared in Cellasene advertising saying: "When I was
asked to oversee the Australian trial I must admit I did so with
much skepticism.
"However, the results speak for themselves -- with an over 60
per cent success rate after just eight weeks I have to admit I
don't know how it works, but it does work.
"Not only are my patients happy with the reduction in the
appearance of their cellulite, everyone has told me how they
have such a feeling of wellbeing and that has to be good."
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