Break down cellulite: does this phrase really mean anything?

Breaking down cellulite…

This is a common question: “Does XYZ treatment “break down” cellulite?” Some people alternatively ask: “ Does XYZ treatment “break up” cellulite?”

Whichever way you see it, “break up” or “break down”, when it comes to cellulite it doesn’t mean anything at all.

Cellulite is a multifaceted aesthetic condition, comprising four visible physical manifestations in different proportions: water retention/poor circulation, fat accumulation, fibrosis and skin looseness.

• Can you break up/down poor circulation? What does this even mean?

• Can you break up/down skin looseness? Similarly, this means nothing.

• Can you break down fat? Well, on that matter, some people think you can actually “melt the fat” (which is already liquid in your fat cells) and this nonsense is an excellent topic for another article. But there is no such thing as breaking the fat. It’s all about releasing fat and encouraging fat cells to go into “apoptosis”, i.e. die off gradually.

• The only thing that could physically be “broken down” is the fibrosis aspect of cellulite - but how? There is nothing there to selectively and effectively break, without breaking down everything else too. It’s about gradually stimulating its dissolution, not “breaking” it.

In summary, you cannot get a hammer and start bashing the cellulite until it breaks into small pieces and then gets “absorbed by the lymph” and “expelled by the urine”, as many ignorant ‘experts’ on the web believe.

Cellulite reduction is about:

• Gradually reducing fat accumulation in fat cells and gradually reducing fat cell population

• Boosting circulation and lymphatic drainage

• Gradually stimulating fibrosis dissolution

• Gradually stimulating collagen and elastin synthesis and collagen contraction

Nothing to break up or down.

All in all, it’s about reducing cellulite and/or stimulating skin tightening, not getting a blow torch or a hammer to burn/break everything inside the skin.

Getting that blow torch to “burn the cellulite” and harden the skin

And if you think that I am joking, I am not.

There are techniques out there which aim to literally burn the inside of your skin (hypodermis) in order to “get rid of cellulite” and/or “tighten the skin”.

OK, it doesn’t happen with a blowtorch or a hammer, but with their modern equivalents:

• Surgical ultrasound/radiofrequency/laser cannula tips that are inserted under the skin (invasive)

• Fractional radiofrequency, which involves multiple burning-hot micro-needles inserted into your skin up to 8mm deep (partially invasive and very harsh)

• Extreme intensity HIFU, which aims to burn tissue within or under your skin (non-invasive but very harsh)

• Stationary, extreme intensity radiofrequency, which aims to burn tissue in/under your skin (non-invasive but very harsh)

Scar tissue / skin hardening

Needless to say that these techniques cause a lot of collateral damage and offer little benefit. They burn and break down a lot of healthy tissue causing inflammation, while at the same time helping little with cellulite or skin looseness.

Plus they don’t create properly aligned collagen fibres with lots of elastin and fibrillin interspersed through them (i.e. the hallmarks of nice, functional, elastic, firm skin).

Instead they create dysfunctional, randomly aligned collagen-only scar tissue, lacking elastin.

There is a big difference between skin tightness/elasticity and skin hardness/scar tissue.

And scar tissue / skin hardening is exactly what these treatments offer.

Paper-thin skin

On the other hand, sometimes the body does not react at all with scar tissue formation after the harsh treatment-induced damage, and you are left with damaged, paper thin, even looser skin.

Scar tissue lumps

Or, conversely, sometimes the body overreacts and you are left with lots of excess scar tissue bumps for months or years.

Cellulite reduction, the proper way: by stimulating, not burning and breaking

Stimulating techniques, such as strong - but never excessive - radiofrequency and ultrasound aim to improve the skin, safely, as long as they are provided by a well-trained, experienced and knowledgable therapist.

In contrast, destructive techniques, such as the above, aim to first cause injury in order to improve the skin later. Not a good idea.

Break down and rip-off

Finally, the ‘burn down the cellulite’ type procedures mentioned above, come at an extremely high price tag too. Great for practitioners who promise one-session miracles at an extremely high cost, bad for you.

Accountants and “beauty experts”

Of course, we do not expect the public to know all the above, because it is not their expertise.

No one expects from an accountant or a marketing consultant, for example, to know how cellulite reduction / skin tightening works.

But when this…

“break down the cellulite which is then removed by the lymphatic system, so remember to drink lots of water”

…nonsense is being used by either a beauty therapist, an aesthetic doctor or a ‘skin expert’ in the media, it shows utter ignorance and is unacceptable for a professional.

All in all, cellulite, or any of its components, is not broken down, it is reduced, ideally with safe treatments, such as:

• Deep tissue, high-power radiofrequency

• Deep tissue ultrasound

• Strong cellulite massage (less effective than the above but more economical)

• Concentrated cellulite creams (slower acting but more economical)

• And, of course, healthy diet, exercise and overall lifestyle (essential for any cellulite prevention / reduction / maintenance plan)