There is nothing stranger than seeing two tight, hard, compact red loaves of skin and fat where your belly used to be.
I had gone to try the non-invasive fat-reduction procedure, CoolTech by Medica, at the new Icon Clinic in Abu Dhabi. The treatment, which is approved by the United States Food and Drug administration, is designed to freeze and then melt away stubborn fat deposits.
During a tense 70 minutes, I felt as if all of my stomach fat had been sucked from my body into what looked like two rectangular ice cube makers, each about the size of a loaf of bread.
My panic subsided a few moments after the first of the two CoolTech freezing instruments was lifted off and Dr Abeer Sawwaf – a Lebanon-born, American board-certified plastic surgeon and general surgeon who recently started the clinic – began to massage the part of my stomach that had been frozen, with the help of an assistant.
During the treatment I had felt nauseous but Dr Sawwaf said this had nothing to do with the process (and probably everything to do with my own anxiety about what was happening to my belly).
I had also felt a strange combination of hot and cold, and she explained that an extreme cold sensation was just confusing to the body and so can also feel hot.
First Dr Sawwaf and her staffer put cooling gel and a cooling pad on my lower and upper belly before placing the two freezing instruments on my skin, into which the fat is sucked.
After the freezing process, I watched as they massaged the initially alarming-looking frozen skin and fat “loaves” away in just a few moments with soothing lavender oil.
Dr Sawwaf warned me the treated area would ache and feel numb for at least a week – and it did, it ached quite a lot. The numbness lasted much longer and even now, six weeks after my only treatment, I find both areas are still faintly numb and sometimes itchy.
She also said the results would be gradual and take two to three weeks to notice, and then continue to become evident for up to three months – and that is exactly what happened. I swore nothing had changed for weeks, and then one day, suddenly, it seemed the two stubborn pockets of fat that sat at the bottom of either side of my rib cage were much smaller. About a week later, I noticed that a prominent bit of belly fat I’d had for years had gone.
Basically the treatment works like liposuction, except rather than being sucked out, the fat cells are frozen to death, then slowly absorbed into the body and excreted as waste.
Dr Sawwaf explained that the fat will not return to the treated spots, because the fat cells have been killed, but should I gain weight, it will appear in other areas.
The spectre of chubby shoulders does freak me out, and is enough of a spectre to keep me working out regularly for the rest of my life.
According to Dr Sawwaf’s research, freezing is the most effective non-surgical intervention against fat on the market, and holds up the best over time.
• Cool sculpting can be done during one to three sessions, for Dh1,000 a session. It can be used to treat the stomach, thighs, love handles, double chin and arms. For more information, or to book an appointment, call Icon Clinic at 02 551 6699. This review was carried out at the invitation of the clinic
The National was a guest of the venue.
amcqueen@thenational.ae
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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