subject: Cellulite Causes: The Five Major Causes Of Cellulite Explained By Dr Lycka [print this page] Hi! This is DrHi! This is Dr. Barry Lycka. This article is one of a series of 4 about cellulite. One question I get constantly asked is what is cellulite? What is the cause of cellulite? Is it just fatty tissue, or is it just other things as well? Well, I'm happy to tell you that we are understanding cellulite causes a lot better in the year 2012. We have a great concept about it and we'll understand it better in years to come as well.
But here are the important things you have to realize about cellulite. It's not just fatty tissue. Fatty tissue is part of the problem. But the first thing we see happening in cellulite, number one, is that cellulite has thinning of the skin. The skin gets literally thinner in those areas where cellulite develops. One thing I've noticed is there are a lot of stretch marks in those areas and those stretch marks are responsible for thinning of the skin. And because we get that thinning going on, the cellulite starts to get noticeable.
The second thing that happens is people get little dells or little valleys in cellulite and that's because there's fiber septae in there. And the fiber septae are pulling down the skin and the skin literally is being tethered down and that's causing some of the valleys under the skin.
And the third thing we see is actually an abundance of fat. We see more fat in that superficial compartment.
Now, these are the primary cause of cellulite.
You need all three of those to have cellulite to be noticeable.
But there are two secondary processes we also see.
Once these secondary processes start to occur, the circulation doesn't work as well. And when the circulation doesn't work as well, swelling and edema occurs in these areas. With swelling and edema, we have a lot of problems coming up. And then that's where you start getting the cottage cheese-like textures in the thighs and to the buttocks, to the abdomen - which nobody likes.
Finally, the last thing that happens is free radicals build up. Free radicals are a by-product of metabolism of cells and when this starts to build, the skin literally starts to take on a different color and a different texture, and we can't get rid of those things from that area.
So we have to target all these aspects that cause cellulite, when performing cellulite treatment. The cellulite will respond if we logically look at this and get this better for people.
To read more on what we can do about cellulite and some current cellulite treatments, please look out for the other articles in this series.
