Asthma Cream Appears to Reduce Thigh Size : Science: UCLA researcher used over-the-counter remedy in small study group of women. Experts express mixed reactions to the research results.

A UCLA researcher reports that a cream made from an over-the-counter asthma remedy appears to have reduced thigh size in women in a small, preliminary study.

The cream has been patented and licensed to an entrepreneur, said one of its developers, Dr. Frank Greenway of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Greenway said he shares the patent with one of his collaborators, Dr. George Bray, a noted obesity researcher and director of Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

The research was described this week in Milwaukee at the annual meeting of the North American Assn. for the Study of Obesity, an organization of academic scientists doing basic research on causes and possible treatments for obesity.

The cream’s active ingredient is aminophylline, an asthma remedy available in pill form without prescription, Greenway said.

He said the cream was studied in two groups of 12 women. Every day, each woman had a teaspoon of the cream applied to one thigh, and an inactive cream applied to the other.

After five weeks, the treated thighs had shrunk in circumference by an average of half an inch, Greenway said. One woman complained of skin irritation and dropped out of the study.

In the second group, a less potent cream was used to avoid irritation. It produced even better results: a reduction of about 1 1/2 inches in the treated thighs.

The cream reduced thigh size even in women who didn’t lose weight, Greenway said. Researchers believe, but have not yet proven, that the result is because of the loss of fat.

Greenway said the cream appears to work by altering fat cells in the thighs to make it easier for them to discharge stored fat. “Maybe too much inhibits the system,” he said.

The research drew skepticism and enthusiasm from those who heard it described at a scientific meeting this week.

“It was a very interesting and very preliminary report, (but) it’s not yet cause for excitement,” said Patrick M. O’Neil, director of the Weight Management Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.

O’Neil said questions remain about whether the cream is truly reducing fat and whether its effects will persist. But he immediately began making arrangements to obtain some of the cream to conduct his own tests.