According to Lionel Bissoon's "The Cellulite Cure," between 80 and 90 percent of American women have cellulite. This dimpled, textured skin usually appears around the love handles, buttocks and thighs. Your body produces cellulite when fat cells pop through their connective tissue, protruding against the skin. Any effective treatment has to reach below the skin's surface to reshape the tissue and fat.
Body Lift
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a body lift can help reduce cellulite---not liposuction, as is commonly believed. Body lifts remove excess skin and reshape your body's contours in the abdomen, buttocks, thighs or upper arms. The surgery gets rid of sagging fat and skin that keep your body's connective tissue from smoothly absorbing your fat deposits. Surgeons make multiple incisions and remove excess skin and fat, repositioning tissue for a smoother contour. Support sutures keep the tissues in place as the body heals.
Mesotherapy
Mesotherapy is a two-part cellulite treatment combining surgery and injections. The surgical component includes Stringcision™, to erase existing cellulite dimples, and Subcision™, which removes horizontal lines on the back of your thighs. Both surgeries involve cutting the bands of connective tissue between your fat deposits, creating a smoother, non-dimpled surface beneath the skin. The injections deliver vitamins and medicine to the stem cells in your mesoderm, or middle layer of skin, to help them form healthy new tissue instead of cellulite. According to Bissoon, healthy connective tissue links your fat cells into smooth, regular bundles that lay flat beneath the skin with no "orange peel" or "cottage cheese" texture.
Endermologie®
This treatment involves an intensive machine-driven massage, stimulating blood flow to cellulite-affected areas. A French company, LPG, received FDA approval in 1999, indicating the massager "temporarily reduces the appearance of cellulite." According to LPG's FDA application, this therapeutic massager uses vacuum power and rollers to lift and shape the skin, with temporary vibrations for additional stimulation. The device itself was originally intended as a treatment for lower back pain, but when female patients reported significant improvement in the look of cellulite, LPG developed a protocol for cosmetic use, suggesting 14 sessions of approximately 40 minutes each for best results.
Cellulite Creams
The New Zealand Dermatological Society reports that some topical medications do produce results, though they may vary widely from person to person. Long-term retinol use can diminish cellulite by building up collagen and elastic fibers in the skin. Some patients, they say, report positive results with topical aminophylline, an asthma medication that relaxes the lungs. Herbal creams often contain ingredients with undocumented effects that sometimes lead to skin allergies. According to Bissoon, creams that contain liposomes do penetrate the skin and target fat calls, reducing them in size. However, he says, they can't treat the underlying cause of your cellulite, making them a temporary fix at best.
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