What is inflammaging and how does it affect cellulite and skin firmness?

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• Inflammation: a major aspect of cellulite

• What causes inflammaging?

• What effect does inflammation have on our skin but also our body? 

• Why has the term 'inflammaging' become so buzzy in beauty in recent years? 

• How can we prevent inflammation from occurring in our bodies and causing aging and cellulite?

• Are there any relevant nutrients, supplements or skincare actives?

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

Inflammation: a major aspect of cellulite

Inflammaging (ageing due to inflammation / inflammation due to ageing) is defined as an age-related increase in the levels of pro-inflammatory markers in blood and tissues.

Inflammaging is a fancy recent name for an older term, "chronic, low grade inflammation", which has been used for more than two decades and it refers to both whole body ageing and skin ageing.

Mild chronic inflammation is generally considered to be a biomarker of accelerated biological ageing, which can result in both health and aesthetic conditions, including skin ageing and cellulite.

In fact, low grade, chronic inflammation is one of the seven aspects of cellulite. In fact, cellulite is defined as “Oedematous Fibrosclerotic Pannicullopathy”, i.e. inflammation of the dermal adipose tissue, accompanied by fibrosis and by water retention / oedema (inflammation in the body is almost always accompanied by oedema and quite often results in fibrosis).

Progressed cellulite is clearly fibrotic, oedematous and inflammatory, while early cellulite is only mildly so.

What causes inflammaging?

Inflammaging is defined a low grade, chronic inflammation that results in degenerative changes in the whole body, including skin, and increasingly occurs with ageing.

Most old people suffer from inflammaging, but in today's world inflammaging occurs more and more at younger ages, mainly due to:

• Overeating / unhealthy eating, which leads to metabolic inflammation, pre-diabetes and diabetes

• Alcohol consumption

• Smoking and vaping

• Chronic stress

• Leaky gut and dysbiosis (accumulation of harmful bacteria in the gut)

• Several other factors

What effect does inflammation have on our skin but also our body? 

It is obvious that some of the most important factors of inflammaging (unhealthy/excess nutrition, alcohol consumption, smoking) happen to also be major factors of cellulite.

So we can clearly state that cellulite is a partially inflammatory aesthetic condition or partially the result of inflammaging in the hypodermal adipose tissue (fat tissue in the deepest skin layer), where cellulite occurs.

Among other tissues, inflammaging damages skin and its blood vessels, leading to skin ageing.

Furthermore, it is now known that hypodermal adipose tissue is as pro-inflammatory as visceral adipose tissue (deep stomach fat), which is known to cause heart disease and diabetes (on the other hand, normal deep fat tissue on the thighs is much less inflammatory).

Given that skin, blood vessels and fat are all affected by inflammation, it is no wonder that inflammation is an integral aspect of cellulite.

Why has the term 'inflammaging' become so buzzy in beauty in recent years? 

The beauty is known to always jump in the bandwagon, although usually about 20 years too late.

Chronic low grade inflammation has been discussed by experts in regard to metabolism, nutrition and cellulite for more than two decades now, but at last the catchy portmanteau word “inflammaging” is starting to make headlines, both in the beauty industry and in nutrition.

BTW, glycation, another source of skin ageing and contributor to inflammaging, is largely ignored by media, but expect to read about it in consumer magazines and websites in a decade or so…

How can we prevent inflammation from occurring in our bodies and causing aging and cellulite?

Are there changes we can make to our lifestyle and diet but also our skincare routine?

Absolutely. Inflammaging can be prevented by:

• healthy nutrition, based on more omega-3 fatty acids, lean protein, fibre, berry fruits, fruits in general, low carb, low saturated fat, no sugar etc)

• exercise

• good sleep

• reduced stress (if that's possible!)

• probiotics/prebiotics

• avoiding smoking/alcohol

• topical anti-aging / cellulite treatments (deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and high-power ultrasound cavitation, strong cellulite-specific massage)

Are there any relevant nutrients, supplements or skincare actives?

We can also help reduce inflammaging with anti-inflammatory / antioxidant / anti-glycation nutrients (in the form of foods, nutritional supplements, concentrated skincare creams) such as:

• resveratrol (berry fruits, pomegranates)

• curcumin (turmeric)

• EGCG (green tea)

• chlorogenic acid (green coffee berry)

• cocoa flavanols

• centella asiatica / gotu kola

• quercetin, rutin, hesperidin (citrus fruits)

• and many other polyphenols and carotenoids

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

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