How to Treat Cellulite

In the Episode on “what is cellulite?” I explained how women’s normal fat lobules have fibrous septae that border the fat lobules but these septae are too short for the amount of fat in the lobule and that’s what causes this undulation or puckering at the surface of the top of the fat lobules and that uneven surface, that puckering is transmitted right through visually to the surface of the skin and gives the appearance of cellulite. So there are two ways that we can help correct that. The first way is to try to lengthen those fibrous septae because if we make it longer and bring it all the way up to here the surface will smooth out and we won’t see the puckers of cellulite. The other way to do it is to actually remove fat from the lobules and make these lobules smaller, so as a result of shrinking their size the relative undulations on the top and the irregularities on the surface becomes much more even and you don’t see the cellulite as clearly. In terms of mechanisms to stretch out those septae, we use a procedure called Endomology. These steel rollers regularly and deeply massage the skin and literally stretch it, they roll over the skin and they stretch out those fibers, the improvement is real but the problem is you have to do it a couple of times a week, it takes a half an hour to an hour and you have to maintain it or else the improvement will go away. The other way to do this is to remove fat from the lobule; the most direct way is by dietary restriction that creates a very even reduction in all the fat lobules. Another way to do it is with liposuction but with liposuction you don’t get such an even result because you reduce some fat lobules but not all of them and in the past few years there’s been a whole influx of new technology which promises to reduce cellulite. Lasers, intense pulse light, infrared technology, radiofrequency technology and even freezing promises to improve cellulite. Well the reality is that the results are modest, the improvements are minimal and buyer beware. However, if you go into this procedure with realistic expectations and you understand that your improvement will only be modest, then do your homework, check with people who can give you direct recommendations for the procedure that was done and the people who preformed it and make sure your procedure is going to be performed by a board certified dermatologist in order to ensure that you get the best possible result but again limit your expectations so you won’t be disappointed.