Low-impact treatment combo strengthens core, pelvic floor muscles.
Against a blue- and pumpkin-colored sky, the sun dips into the ocean in the wedding photo that hangs above the entertainment center in Angela’s* Vero Beach living room.
“My husband and I were married on the beach in Negril, Jamaica, and that sunset photo that was taken of us looking into each other’s eyes while my husband holds me in his arms is by far my favorite,” Angela relates.
Angela, 48, loves that photo so much that she and her husband vowed to return to Negril and recapture the image as part their 10th anniversary celebration this past November. They made good on that plan.
The pictures turned out great, although Angela wondered for a while whether she’d feel up to traveling back to Jamaica, much less squeezing back into her old wedding dress.
“I had two problems,” Angela confesses. “The biggest was that, about two years ago, I started to suffer from some serious bouts of urinary incontinence. The other was that I had put on about 15 or 20 pounds since we got married.”
Urinary incontinence is an involuntary loss of urine that can also present itself as a strong urge to urinate.
“The incontinence was so bad that I started wearing absorbency pads for protection and was changing them out once or twice a day,” she says. “And if I ever started sneezing or coughing, forget it. It made me very hesitant to leave the house for anything other than work.”
“As for the weight issue, I had this paunch around my belly that I needed to lose if I was going to fit into my wedding dress again, which was the whole idea. I’ve been a patient of Dr. Dean’s for a few years now, so I went to Dean Wellness Institute to see if they could help me.”
Dean Wellness Institute is the practice of Melissa Dean, MD. An expert in treating menopause and andropause, Dr. Dean practices traditional medicine while also offering a holistic approach to wellness.
Her specialties include hormone balancing, adrenal support therapy and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, the latter of which is considered the most natural and effective solution for hormone-related issues.
Her clinic also offers a variety of intravenous therapies, including IV vitamin therapy, anti-aging/regenerative medicine in addition to aesthetic treatments such as neuromodulators, hyaluronic acid-based fillers and microneedling with platelet rich plasma.
Recently, Dr. Dean initiated a treatment package specifically for people such as Angela. It’s called Core to Floor, a therapy designed to shape and strengthen the abdominal core while also strengthening the muscles of the pelvic floor.
What’s unique about Core to Floor is that it combines two nonsurgical, drug-free treatments. One features EMSCULPT® NEO, an FDA-approved body-contouring treatment that burns stubborn fat, tones muscle and tightens skin. The other uses the BTL Emsella® chair, a device that contracts the muscles of the pelvic floor to correct urinary incontinence.
Sit on It
Unlike drugs or surgery, the BTL Emsella chair uses electromagnetic energy to induce contractions that stimulate muscles in the pelvic floor and restore neuromuscular control to those muscles.
The degree of the contractions created by the chair is something that someone cannot achieve on their own doing Kegel, or pelvic floor, exercises, according to Dr. Dean, who says the treatments are not painful in any way.
“They’re actually quite comfortable,” Dr. Dean offers. “The Emsella chair is just that; it’s a chair that the patient can sit on fully clothed and actually carry on a conversation with someone while being treated.
“Each treatment lasts about 30 minutes, and we always make sure the patient is positioned properly so the degree of the contractions is optimal for the strengthening that needs to take place.”
A typical plan calls for patients to receive two treatments per week for three consecutive weeks. Those treatments will not only help with urinary incontinence, but also bowel incontinence. They can even help patients more easily achieve orgasm.
Unlike medications, which can cause vaginal dryness and dryness of the mouth, there are no side effects associated with BTL Emsella chair treatments, which produce only positive results throughout the pelvic region.
“Strengthening pelvic floor muscles helps improve stability,” Dr. Dean educates. “And that’s important because it’s part of your core, and good core strength can help you avoid hip problems, pelvic problems, rectal problems, all kinds of problems.”
Helping patients avoid those problems is why Dr. Dean has combined the BTL Emsella chair with the EMSCULPT NEO, which delivers rapid pulses of high-intensity electromagnetic and radiofrequency energy to targeted areas of the body.
Relaxed Fat Reduction
“The energy is emitted through an applicator applied to the area targeted for treatment,” Dr. Dean explains. “The energy heats the fat cells to a degree where they simply can’t survive. Once the fat cells die, the lipids inside them are released into the lymph system and excreted over time.
“At the same time those fat cells are being targeted, the muscles are heated, and there’s a contraction device on the applicator that, when working the abdomen for instance, simulates the body doing about 20,000 stomach crunches in half an hour.”
Conveniently, EMSCULPT NEO treatments last about 30 minutes and are done while the patient relaxes on a table. They can be used on multiple areas with stubborn fat or a need for increased muscle tone such as the abdomen, legs, thighs, upper arms or buttocks.
Clinical studies show that EMSCULPT NEO patients typically realize a 30 percent decrease in fat and a 25 percent increase in muscle growth after four treatments. As a result, Dr. Dean builds custom treatment packages that begin with a minimum of four treatments.
Dr. Dean built just such a custom treatment package for Angela that included BTL Emsella chair treatments. The Core to Floor therapy bundle did exactly what Dr. Dean suggested it would, alleviating Angela’s incontinence while reducing the fat around her belly.
“The Emsella chair treatments were completely painless, and they worked,” Angela enthuses. “That constant urge to go to the bathroom is gone. I’m no longer wearing absorbency pads and I haven’t had a leakage episode in months.
“And thanks to the EMSCULPT NEO, I was able to lose that paunch I had around my belly and fit back into my wedding dress. I didn’t even have to have it altered. The same can’t be said for my husband’s tuxedo, but that’s another story.
“I knew Dr. Dean would have a good solution for my concerns. She offers a lot of leading-edge therapies, and the idea of combining Emsella chair treatments with EMSCULPT NEO was really smart.
“I know a lot of women who have the same problems I had, and there are probably a few men out there who could benefit from Core to Floor therapy as well. I recommend Dr. Dean and Dean Wellness Institute to all of them. It’s definitely the place to go.”
