Common causes of cellulite
Published Friday June 20th, 2008
Well, summer is finally here. Finally, the sun seems to have made an appearance and might actually stay for more than one day in a row. Now we can pull out our shorts and bathing suits and start to enjoy the summer sensations.
Since summer is so short-lived, wasting our time worrying about what we look like should be the least of our problems.
But since the biggest percentage of people reading this column are women, we all know what it means to hop into that dreaded bathing suit.
We put it on and stand in front of the mirror. We check from every angle and since 90 to 95% of women (big and small) have cellulite we all find what we have been looking for. It didn't go away through the winter.
In the olden days (150 years ago) they said cellulite was considered a disease. In my book it still is - dis ease means we are still not comfortable with it
To understand how cellulite appears put the tips of your fingers on a flat surface, take a half filled balloon and squeeze it under your hand.
The balloon will protrude between each finger and form little balls. This is what happens with cellulite. The only thing is we can bust the balloon, not cellulite.
It is very rare that men have it and if they do it is not noticeable because the skin on their thighs and buttocks is thicker than ours. I think this means men are thick skinned.
So since we have come to the conclusion that as women we have been blessed with another attribute of being female, what do we do to rid ourselves of cellulite?
There is exercise, diet, detoxifying, creams, machines with infrared light and then liposuction. But guess what, liposuction does not even remove cellulite.
The reason for this is because cellulite is fat that is caught between the damaged or weak bands of connective tissue (elastin and collagen).
When having liposuction they remove fat that is in our third layer of skin (hypodermis) whereas the connective tissue is our second layer, the dermis.
What we need to do is repair the connective tissue so there is less chance of fat protruding into the dermis.
There are products that claim they can help vanish cellulite. Vanish being the magic word. In the dictionary vanish means "to pass from a visible to an invisible state".
So what you can't see won't hurt you. As long as we are aware that products do not remove cellulite and that they just mask the appearance.
We drink plenty of water to help hydrate our skin and to help eliminate toxins. We try to keep a healthy diet by omitting as much sugar and fat possible.
Exercising should also be on top of the list, but remember cardio will help you lose fat (hypodermis) but not cellulite, since cellulite is in the dermis.
You need to do strength training to help build muscle. The more muscle you have the less obvious the cellulite because your legs and buttocks are firmer.
One other way to make cellulite less noticeable is to have a nice tanned skin - from a bottle, of course.
So remember, we will all find our own methods to help reduce the appearance of cellulite and make it through the summer, but when we are eighty years old we will think of the time we wasted worrying about it.
I had a client ask me one day if I thought her butt was big. I told her "In fifty years, when your butt is gone south you will wish you had enjoyed that butt.
Not that I think we should enjoy our cellulite but maybe not waste a lot of energy on something that most of us have.
Dr. Oz said that men don't notice cellulite so I asked my boyfriend.
He said, "What's cellulite?" Smart man.
If he hasn't noticed it by now, I'm sure not going to point it out.
n Lorraine Cormier is an esthetician who also has years of experience in the medical field.
She now operates In Our Hands, a skin care and beauty consultation company.
She can be reached at 855-4264 or nrhands@nb.sympatico.ca.
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