Do ultrasonic waves break down fat and cellulite?

Ultrasound cavitation and fat / cellulite reduction

Our RF and ultrasound articles are a nice way to share our experience in radiofrequency and cavitation from our London clinic with everyone in the world. Check all our RF and ultrasound articles here. And if you do live in London, book an assessment or treatment with us here.

• Does ultrasound cavitation treatment break down fat or cellulite?

• How ultrasound cavitation “breaks down” fat

• When ultrasonic waves destabilise fat cells and lead to adipocyte apoptosis

• What happens to the fat after an ultrasound cavitation session?

• When ultrasonic waves break fat cells and lead to adipocyte necrosis

• Ultrasound wave intensity and adipocyte apoptosis vs necrosis

• When ultrasonic waves burn fat cells and everything else in the area

• Breaking down fat and cellulite: the facts

• Check our professional consultancy in cellulite, skin tightening, ultrasound and radiofrequency

Does ultrasound cavitation treatment break down fat or cellulite?

In the instant gratification world we live today in the West, where everything is instant and miraculous if you have money to pay for it, it seems that many people are obsessed in magically “breaking down” fat “forever”.

And breaking down means zapping fat with a laser, ultrasound or radiofrequency device or mechanically breaking it with a therapist’s fingers or with a suction / vibration / shockwave machine, with the fat then evaporating into thin air forever so one can eat as much as much as they want from then on, without putting on any more fat or cellulite on their thighs, stomach etc.

However, reality is not as simple, regardless of how rich one is. Biology does not work like that and nothing - including amazing technologies such as ultrasound - breaks down fat and evaporates it into the ether.

So let’s have a look at the science and away from the virtual reality goggles of instagram and aesthetic clinic marketing fluff.

How ultrasound cavitation “breaks down” fat

There are only two technologies available currently which efficiently AND safely “break down” fat (and consequently cellulite): deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and high-power ultrasound cavitation.

Ultrasonic waves emitted by an ultrasound cavitation machine vibrate fat cells anywhere from 30,000 to 10,000,000 times per second, depending on the technology used.

This micro-vibration can:

• Destabilise the fat cell, without immediately breaking it

• Physically disrupt the cell membrane and destroy the fat cell

• Completely destroy entire patches of fat tissue and any other tissue next to it

When ultrasonic waves destabilise fat cells and lead to adipocyte apoptosis

If the ultrasonic vibration is strong and sustained enough, it can destabilise and weaken some fat cells, leading them to release fat and to go into a process called ‘adipocyte apoptosis’, i.e. programmed fat cell death (if a fat cells loses a lot of its fat content, automatically goes into the apoptosis process).

In time (hours to several days), the fat cell dies off, the triglycerides (fat molecules) contained in it leak into the surround intercellular space and immune cells are “recruited” to break down and digest the fat cell remnants.

What happens to the fat after an ultrasound cavitation session?

If during the period whilst you receive your course of ultrasound treatments - and especially on the day of treatment - you are on a negative calorie balance, the leaked fat will be burned for energy and disappear from your body (6-12 sessions, taken once a week on average, is a good number of treatments).

Please note that just because the fat cell is broken, this doesn’t mean that the fat contained in it disappears into outer space. You still have to burn it for energy, and this only occurs if you are on a negative calorie balance - especially on the day of treatment.

If on the day of treatment - and in general during your course of treatments - you are on a positive calorie balance (perhaps because you may think that “the cavitation will burn the fat, anyway, so I can eat whatever I want”), the leaked fat will stimulate the growth of new fat cells in the area (adipocyte differentiation) and all you will achieve from the process is to replace an old fat cell with a new fat cell.

This is the science: nothing burns into a flame and there are no magical solutions for one to eat what they want and the ultrasound waves to break their fat forever, so that they never put on fat on the same spot ever again. It doens’t work that way.

In biology - and in life in general - there are no miracles and there is no “forever“.

Ultrasound cavitation does indeed reduce fat tissue (and therefore cellulite) but gradually, not instantly, and you must also contribute by eating healthily and staying active during and after the whole process.

So forget the magical thinking BS propagated by beauty therapists and famous cosmetic surgeons alike.

When ultrasonic waves break fat cells and lead to adipocyte necrosis

If the ultrasound vibration is strong and sustained enough, it can also physically disrupt (break) the adipocyte cell membrane of some fat cells, leading triglycerides contained in it to leak outside the cell instantly.

The instant death of a fat cell is called adipocyte necrosis.

Ultrasound wave intensity and adipocyte apoptosis vs necrosis

In practice, the differences between adipocyte apoptosis and necrosis are small.

Although adipocyte necrosis is more radical than adipocyte apoptosis, in both cases the fat cell ultimately dies and in both cases you still have to be on a negative calorie balance to eliminate the leaked fat and prevent it from stimulating adipocyte differentiation in the area.

During a session of ultrasound cavitation there is a mix of adipocyte apoptosis and adipocyte necrosis occurring:

• If the treatment is too weak (as in with low power equipment), little apoptosis and almost no necrosis occurs. This means poor or no results.

• If the treatment is just right (as in with high power equipment, responsibly administered by a well trained therapist), there is a good mix of apoptosis and necrosis, with zero downtime and no adverse reactions whatsoever. In all cases, not all fat cells weaken or die, as the intensities needed for massive fat cell death will also lead to “massive anything in the area death”, which you don’t want (see below).

• If the treatment is too strong (as in with a therapist being too enthusiastic to offer you fast results or with high intensity HIFU), there is a lot of necrosis, not just of fat cells but of anything else in the area. This means burns and scar tissue.

When ultrasonic waves burn fat cells and everything else in the area

If the ultrasound vibration is extremely strong and/or sustained too long, either with normal ultrasound or with very high intensity HIFU (neither is a great idea), it can also physically disrupt (break) not only adipocyte cell membranes but also that of other cells in the area (e.g. collagen cells), in addition to damaging blood vessels and any other tissue in the area.

This is in essence a tissue burn but proponents of this smart “burn it all down” mentality call it “coagulation”.

However, no matter how you dress a pig, it remains a pig. And no matter how you call a burn, it remains a burn - not “coagulation”.

Massive adipocyte and other tissue necrosis leads to the recruitment of immune cells to clear up the mess, remove all the dead tissue and replace it to a large extent with scar tissue - which is then baptised “skin tightening”.

Again, no matter how you dress a pig, it does remain a pig. So no matter how you call scar tissue, it remains dysfunctional, hard scar tissue - not functional, elastic, tighter skin tissue.

As you can see, we totally disagree with this last scenario, which aims to give “fast results” in 1-4 miracle sessions and justify exorbitant prices.

We prefer to keep it gradual and safe, because results with this “burn it all down mentality” are neither fast (there is downtime involved) nor better than with the gradual approach (quite often, if you don’t get scar tissue level damage, nothing happens).

It is just more expensive and dangerous for the client.

Breaking down fat and cellulite: the facts

So, in summary, ultrasound cavitation can indeed “break down” fat cells, but you don’t want it want too much of it too fast (neither too little, of course).

And you still have to follow a healthy nutrition and exercise regime during / after your course of sessions, for maximum / long-lasting results, respectively.

This is because nothing will ever break your fat tissue forever. New fat cells can spring up literally anywhere in the body, including areas treated with ultrasound (or even areas where fat was sucked out with liposuction) if you eat too much, drink too much alcohol or sit down too much.

So the best option is to have a course of 6-12 strong (but not crazy strong) ultrasound cavitation sessions, follow a healthy lifestyle afterwards for good, long-term results.

Check our professional consultancy in cellulite, skin tightening, ultrasound and radiofrequency

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