|
|
|
few years ago, a bestseller on the subject referred to cellulite (pronounced cell’-you-leet) as a “household word in Europe.” It describes the “lumps, bumps, and bulges” that do not disappear with simple diet and exercise. What the book doesn’t say is that cellulite affects practically every female, of every age.
Cellulite is an invented disease. It is a “normal abnormality” that has tortured European women for many decades. The word cellulite was apparently coined at the turn of the century in European salons to describe the waffled-looking fat on women’s buttocks and upper thighs. The proponents of this nondisease, seeking new markets for their advertising and useless remedies, have flooded the American market with their “miracle” products and their fraudulent claims.
To find out what cellulite looks like, make this pinch test: with your palms about four inches apart, press and squeeze together the outer part of your upper thigh. If the skin ripples and looks like a mattress, it means you have cellulite. It also probably means that you are a woman!
In a scientific investigation of almost a thousand women, this mattress-like phenomenon occurred in practically all of them. Cellulite is not found in men who have the normal amount of male hormones (androgens). It is, however, found in men who have an androgen deficiency due to hormonal disease.
Cellulite – really a fancy name for plain fat – is a sex-typical feature of women’s skin and is not a sign of disease. It is most common on the buttocks and thighs but can also occur on the lower part of the abdomen, the upper portions of the arms, and elsewhere. Contrary to reports in nonmedical literature, cellulite is not painful, nor is it due to illness, miniskirts, or birth control pills.
What do hormones have to do with cellulite, and why do only women have it? The following is a simplified, non-technical explanation: The reason why women have cellulite is that their skin is much thinner than that of men. As women get older, this thin skin becomes even thinner and looser, and clusters of fat cells begin to replace this lost skin. It is these fatty clusters – high up in the skin – that are responsible for the mattress-like phenomenon and the feel of cellulite.
What can you do about cellulite? The paperback bestsellers, advertisements, and commercials would have you believe that diet, proper bowel function, breathing exercises, relaxation, yoga, massage, enzyme injections, liposuction, low power laser beams, iontophoresis, “mesotherapy,” or the heralded “rice treatment” can eliminate this mark of womanhood. Don’t believe them. Imagine pounding or massaging a glob of chicken fat. As hard or as long as you pound or massage it, nothing is going to turn it into anything other than fat!
The best way to prevent excessive so-called cellulite is to avoid becoming overweight. If you are overweight, slow and progressive weight loss and exercising to improve muscle tone in the buttocks and thighs may help reduce cellulite. Female athletes, by the way, show little or no cellulite.
A few ways to avoid cellulite (Not all of them are in your control):
It seems a pity that what was once depicted as “ideal” by such famous artists as Botticelli, Rubens, and Goya is no longer considered chic or desirable.
 |  |  |
|
|
|