Taut and Toned package trims fat, tightens lumpy skin using Emsculpt NEO, BTL Emtone.
Though they can also be found anywhere along the East Coast, there’s no better place to hunt for spiny Florida lobster than the Keys. And to hear Tina Appel tell it, there’s no better time to hunt for lobster in the Keys than September.
“During the whole month of September, after the kids have all gone back to school, you can pretty much have the open waters of the Keys all to yourself,” Tina reports. “It just seems there aren’t that many boats out there at that time of the year.”
Tina would know. Like birds heading south for the winter, her family migrates south to the Keys every September. The primary objective is to flush out, catch and eat as many lobsters as the law allows.
“My husband and I are a real good team,” she insists. “He tickles the lobsters out with a tickle stick, and I plop a bully net on top of them. If they’re legal size, we put them in the boat, and they become our dinner for the night. We love it.”
A retired nurse, Tina also loves to fish for grouper, and at age 63, she remains a self-proclaimed “gym rat” who eagerly starts each day early and works out regularly — twice a week with a personal trainer.
“Exercise has always been a big part of my life,” Tina contends. “I’m a big advocate of keeping fit. And I feel like I’m in pretty good shape for someone my age. But even with all that exercise, I still had some problem areas that needed extra attention.”
Those areas were her tummy, where she could never seem to shed those last few pounds of flab, and her legs, where cellulite sometimes made her think twice about wearing shorts or her favorite bathing suit.
Despite her years in the medical field, Tina never thought she’d find a solution at a doctor’s office. She did just that, though, during a visit to Family First Health Center, the practice of Delicia M. Haynes, MD.
Join the Club
Based on the Direct Primary Care model, Family First Health Center is an integrative, membership-based primary care clinic where Dr. Haynes empowers patients to look and feel their best from the inside out through a lifestyle medicine approach.
Unlike many traditional primary care offices, Family First offers members prompt appointments, expanded one-on-one time with the doctor, virtual visits and more benefits through a monthly membership. There are no copays, deductibles or insurance hassles.
“It’s like having a gym-style membership to your doctor,” Dr. Haynes relates. “But the membership is secondary because care is our primary focus, and what I promote is personalized health care. I’m like an old-time family doctor with modern technology.”
The model followed by Family First Health Center is one of the fastest-growing movements in primary care, and Dr. Haynes is among those who have helped other physicians make the transition.
“Most doctors really love practicing medicine, but they hate the way it’s being practiced,” she says. “This model is all about getting third parties out of the exam room and going back to emphasizing the doctor-patient relationship.”
On Target
It’s that deeper, more personal relationship that attracted Tina to the practice. She initially pegged it as a good fit for her mother, who was looking for a new primary care physician, but she soon found something there she could benefit from as well.
“We got the membership and made an appointment, and while I was there, I noticed some of the signage they have for Emsculpt® NEO and BTL Emtone™,” Tina explains. “I’d never heard of either one, but I was intrigued, so I asked Dr. Haynes about it.”
At Family First Health, those treatments are offered together to members and the general public through what Dr. Haynes calls the Taut and Toned package.
Emsculpt NEO is an FDA-approved, nonsurgical body-contouring device that uses rapid pulses of high-intensity electromagnetic energy and radiofrequency to simultaneously burn stubborn fat, tone muscle and tighten skin.
“I thought this could be a win-win for me, and it absolutely has been.” – Tina
Delivered through an applicator placed on the treatment area, the radiofrequency component heats the fat cells to a degree where they break down and become permanently damaged. At the same time, it heats the muscle in the target area.
As that happens, the NEO’s electromagnetic component creates what amounts to thousands of supramaximal muscle contractions, which is more than any individual can do alone.
“Think of it like this,” Dr. Haynes explains. “At best, a nonathlete might get 30 percent muscle engagement during a workout. Even an Olympic athlete will only get 50 percent engagement. This technology gets you between 90 and 100 percent engagement.
“That’s why Emsculpt NEO is so effective in building muscle. And in terms of losing fat, once those fat cells are permanently damaged and die, they go through a process called lymphatic drainage in which they slowly exit the body through the lymph system.”
Ideally suited for people with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 35, Emsculpt NEO treatments last about 30 minutes, and FDA-approved studies show that a four-treatment regimen will result in a 30 percent reduction in fat and a 25 percent increase in muscle.
Similar studies show that treatments can lead to a 14.3 percent reduction of visceral fat. Visceral fat is the dangerous fat that surrounds abdominal organs and increases the risk for Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, stroke, fatty liver disease and more.
“While it’s nice to have sculpted abs and glutes, these treatments improve health and core strength, and they allow patients to resume or enjoy an active lifestyle as they continue to celebrate more and more birthdays,” Dr. Haynes says.
BTL Emtone uses a device similar to that used during an Emsculpt NEO treatment to deliver thermal and mechanical energy that treats all of the contributing factors to cellulite, which only affects women.
“Unlike men, who have rectangular fat chambers, fat chambers in women are oval,” Dr. Haynes educates. “Because of that oval shape, dimples form on the skin when collagen fibers pull down on the fat chambers.
“In addition to causing that dimpling on the skin that women hate, the pull on the collagen fibers causes the skin to lose elasticity and slows blood flow. That leads to an accumulation of metabolic waste, but BTL Emtone treats all of those issues.
“It helps diminish the fat chambers. It helps remodel the collagen, so those ties don’t pull down and cause the dimpling of the skin; and it restores elasticity and improves blood flow, which helps with the removal of metabolic waste.”
Emsculpt NEO and BTL Emtone treatments can deliver results you can feel almost immediately after the first treatment, but most visible changes occur gradually over two to four weeks, according to Dr. Haynes.
Confidence Builder
As she does with Emsculpt NEO, Dr. Haynes typically recommends patients receive four 20-minute BTL Emtone treatments across a two- or three-week period. After learning about the treatments, Tina agreed to such a plan and is elated with the results.
“Even though I work out a lot, I had that little tummy pooch that I could never get rid of, but I saw a big difference after doing the Emsculpt NEO treatments,” she says. “And the Emtone treatments really smoothed out my skin where the cellulite was.
“I’m on a maintenance package now where I get a treatment once every month or six weeks, and I’m continuing to see results. The confidence level I have in my appearance now, whether I’m wearing a bathing suit, shorts or whatever, has definitely improved.”
Tina tried the Emsculpt NEO and BTL Emtone treatments hoping they would complement the work she does at the gym. She says she got exactly what she was hoping for.
“I thought this could be a win-win for me, and it absolutely has been,” she confirms. “I gladly recommend Emsculpt NEO and BTL Emtone, and I highly recommend Dr. Haynes and Family First Health Center. She’s a great doctor, and her staff is terrific.”
© FHCN article by Roy Cummings. Photo courtesy of Tina Appel. mkb