“Vegan diet is healthy, so it must be good to help get rid of cellulite, right”? This is a question I hear often at the clinic and my answer is, “not necessarily”. Indeed veganism, or at least vegetarianism is good for the planet, and indeed can be good for your health and appearance, but not necessarily…

The four main visual aspects of cellulite are hypodermal fat accumulation, water retention/puffiness, skin looseness and fibrosis. Hypodermal fat accumulation combined with fibrosis is what makes fat globules protrude from the skin surface. Fat pushes up and fibrotic collagen fibres push down, resulting in the mattress effect. Water retention makes cellulite more visible by increasing volume in the hypodermis and dermis. Likewise, loose skin makes it easier for the fat globules to push up…

There is no such thing as Stage 3 cellulite treatment. Someone simply made it up for marketing purposes. Treatment for cellulite is exactly the same at all stages - and aims to act on all major aspects of Cellulite - at all stages, from Stage 1 to Stage 4: reduce hypodermal fat accumulation; break down fibrosis; improve circulation and lymphatic…

After liposuction skin is very often left with fibrosis, referring to hard scar tissue lumps, hardened skin and adhesions; unremoved fat lumps; cellulite; skin laxity (loose, saggy skin)a combination of the aboveThis applies to all liposuction-related types of surgery…

Imagine the following scenario, something which I hear about all too often from my clients: you wake up one morning and suddenly realise that someone has "painted cellulite" all over your thighs, calves, arms and sometimes even stomach…

With any effective body treatment, it is good to leave one, two or more days between sessions in order to allow for the skin to recover. So with a deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency treatment, you must leave at least 2-3 days between sessions. With ineffective, low power RF treatments, you can leave less time between sessions (as little…

One of the reasons that cellulite develops is the breakdown of connective tissue in the hypodermis, either due to the action of the female hormonal cycle or due to inactivity (or both). Weak connective tissue manifests as skin looseness…

A 2019 paper published in the journal ‘Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy’, examined the profound impact of Western diets and lifestyles on the global epidemic of obesity, and chronic non-infectious degenerative conditions, collectively termed "civilisation diseases" - to which we might incllude the aesthetic condition of cellulite, as the exact same causes of civilisation diseases also result in cellulite development. These conditions/diseases include type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancer, autoimmune disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, and others. The paper argues that these conditions (to which we include cellulite), are rare or absent…

Many people think that they have to “lose all the weight first” and only then start a cellulite treatment, because this way they are ready to start treatment. However, this could not be further from the truth. The best thing is to lose any weight you may want to lose during your course of treatments - not before or after.

“Don’t cook, just eat”, goes the motto of food delivery app Just Eat. Deliveroo and Uber Eats preach a similar philosophy: why bother to cook, when you can outsource your food? Obviously things are not so simple. Takeaway food is not cooked in a ‘Green Pan’ with a £50-a-kilo extra virgin Toscano olive oil, coming out of a cute glass bottle…

The single more important reason for cellulite looking worse in the summer is water retention. Water retention, one of the seven aspects of cellulite, can become worse in the heat of the summer due to vasodilation. In turn, water retention makes the cellulite “bumps” to become enlarged and thighs and buttocks, in general, to become puffy. Water retention can also lead to increased low grade inflammation, another one of the seven aspects of cellulite (the other five being fat accumulation, skin laxity, fibrosis, oxidative damage and glycation)….

Exercise is essential to prevent and reduce cellulite, independently of healthy diet. In fact, both healthy nutrition AND exercise are needed to prevent and reduce cellulite. Exercise, such as walking, does burn calories and does increase your metabolic rate, thereby burning more calories. However, it is actually easier and more effective to burn calories by dieting than by exercising. So why do we need exercise, in addition to dieting? The main reason exercise is needed, in addition to healthy eating, is because it contributes mechanical stimulation…

Celebrities are daily bombarded by expensive PR agents to try different skincare products and treatments for free and quite a few of them consequently get paid to share those “secrets” with their followers. So what celebrities use does not have to do with what is good or effective but with which company has the most expensive and most connected PRs…

Many women notice that smoking has made their cellulite worse, sometimes in a matter of months. There is a lot of misinformation about everything to do with cellulite, so in this article we will examine how smoking (and vaping) affects cellulite and weight gain…

Everyone interested in facial anti-ageing these days is talking about the SMAS. Suddenly everyone is an (ignorant) “expert” in the SMAS, just like everyone interested in cellulite or massage suddenly became an (ignorant) “expert” in all things fascia a few years ago. But what is the SMAS, why is everyone talking about it and why is it not such a great idea to target it non-surgically?

Cocoa flavanols are widely researched for their microcirculation enhancing, collagen protecting, antioxidant, elastin synthesis stimulating and adipose tissue anti-inflammatory action. Cocoa flavanols act directly on four aspects of cellulite. Due to these qualities, cocoa flavanols (purified cocoa extract) is one of the most important skincare actives today for anti-aging, stretch marks, post-liposuction aftercare and anti-cellulite creams…

The main thing that radiofrequency does is to tighten skin. This happens via two mechanisms: RF stimulates existing collagen contraction; RF stimulates new collagen and elastin synthesis. In fact radiofrequency is the best way to achieve both collagen contraction and production. Any other technique is simply not effective enough, unsafe or both.

When it comes to skin tightening / toning / lifting, radiofrequency is the only game in town.

Medical, aesthetic and complementary treatments all try to steer the body towards a specific direction and they generally work, but it is not guaranteed that the body will react in a specific way / after a specific number of sessions. Such treatments are an effort towards a result, not a guarantee of an exact result…

Most people hate surgery and if they suffer from skin looseness, on their thighs or other body area, would rightly prefer to have a course of non-surgical treatments instead. However, for extreme skin laxity and sagginess the only option that makes sense is thigh lift surgery. Non-surgical treatments are great (in fact the only option) for mild or medium skin laxity / sagginess…

Seeds mainly contain omega-6 fatty acids (mainly linoleic acid), of which the Western diet already contains too much, tipping the omega-3 : omega-6 fatty acid balance from an ideal 1:4 to an excessive 1:20. Excess omega-6 fatty acid consumption is known to contribute towards low grade inflammation, which is a contributing factor to cellulite Furthermore, like all oils and fats, seed oils (sunflower oil, corn oil, soy bean oil, horrid cottonseed oil etc) carry…

These medicalised beauty procedures have quite often led to an artificial or even deformed look on the face or the body; quite a lot of adverse reactions; and in the end little actual benefit. A good example of this trend for instant results via the unnecessary and irrational butchering of internal tissues, are collagenase injections to literally dissolve down the excess collagen found in cellulite. This is achieved with a collagen-dissolving enzyme found in an injectable called “collagenase clostridium histolyticum-aaes”…

High-power ultrasound cavitation is one of the two most effective SAFE methods for cellulite reduction, especially when provided by a well-trained, experienced and knowledgable therapist. Normally cavitation is not recommended for skin tightening, as it only exerts a weak skin tightening effect, when applied as usual…

Oxidative damage is an important aspect of cellulite, with the other six being fibrosis, skin laxity, glycation, poor microcirculation, inflammation and superficial fat accumulation. Oxidative damage or free radical damage refers to cell damage by ‘reactive oxygen species’ (ROS) / free radicals, such as OO- (superoxide radical), -OH (hydroxyl radical) and H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide)…

Red and infrared LED light therapy (What does red light therapy do?) is highly effective and extremely safe for both cosmetic purposes and health conditions (back pain, musculoskeletal injuries, seasonal affective disorder, etc.). With a high-power LED unit, 10 minutes may suffice, though 20 minutes (and occasionally 30 minutes) would be preferable. A high-power device is one delivering approximately 60-200mW/cm². Anything exceeding 200mW/cm² for the body or 120mW/cm² for the face is unwise unless conducted in a professional environment with meticulously crafted protocols and for a briefer duration…

Adipose (fat) tissue, i.e. what we call ‘body fat’, stores calories in the body in the form of ‘triglycerides’, which is the technical name for all fats and oils. In addition, adipose tissue also secretes hormones-like substances, called adipokines, such as resistin, adiponectin, leptin, tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and even estrogen…