Researchers Say Medicated Patch Melted Away Love Handles On Mice

BOSTON (CBS) - Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina have developed a new way to get rid of "love handles" at least in rodents.

Using a skin patch loaded with microneedles, researchers were able to deliver drugs painlessly into the tissue below, converting white fat into brown fat. Brown fat, which helps keep babies warm, is metabolically active and rather than storing fat, it can burn fat.

In experiments with obese mice, the patch reduced the fat underneath by 20% in a week.

The hope is that one day the patch could treat fat pockets like "love handles" in humans and maybe even treat obesity and metabolic diseases like diabetes.