Treatment

Treatment

Numerous therapies for the treatment of cellulite are available, but empirical evidence for the efficacy of these strategies is limited. In an interview with the New York Times, Dr. Molly Wanner, an instructor in dermatology at Harvard Medical School and an author of a 2008 evidence-based review of existing treatments, asserted: “At this point, there is no outstanding treatment for cellulite.”[14]

Dr. Michael F. McGuire, a clinical associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, confirmed that “realistically there is no cure for cellulite.”[14].

Dr. Jeffrey Dover, director of SkinCare Physicians, a dermatology practice in Chestnut Hill, Mass., says: "Some people have misrepresented the truth to suggest that there’s a lot you can do [to treat cellulite].

Hormonal factors

Hormonal factors

Hormones play a dominant role in the formation of cellulite. Estrogen may be the important hormone and initiate and aggravate cellulite. However, there has been no reliable clinical evidence to support such a claim. Other hormones including insulin, the catecholamines adrenaline and noradrenaline, thyroid hormones, and prolactin are all believed to participate in the development of cellulite.[2]

Causes

The causes of cellulite are poorly understood [10] and may involve changes in metabolism and physiology such as gender specific dimorphic skin architecture, alteration of connective tissue structure, hormonal factors, genetic factors, the microcirculatory system, the extracellular matrix, and subtle inflammatory alterations.

Epidemiology

Cellulite is thought to occur in 80-90% of the postpubertal females.[8][9] There appears to be a hormonal component to its presentation. It is rarely seen in males,[2] but is more common in males with androgen-deficient states such as Klinefelter's syndrome, hypogonadism, post-castration states and in those patients receiving oestrogen therapy for prostate cancer. The cellulite becomes more severe as the androgen deficiency worsens in these males.

Cellulite

Cellulite is a topographic skin change that is claimed to occur in most postpubertal females.[1] It presents as a modification of skin topography evident by skin dimpling and nodularity that occurs mainly in women on the pelvic region, lower limbs, and abdomen and is caused by the herniation of subcutaneous fat within fibrous connective tissue, leading to a padded or orange peel–like appearance.[2] Cellulite is a description rather than a physical object.[3] The term was first used in the 1920s and began appearing in English language publications in the late 1960s, the earliest reference in Vogue magazine, "Like a swift migrating fish the word cellulite has suddenly crossed the Atlantic."[4] Its existence as a real disorder has been questioned,[5] and the prevailing medical opinion is that it is merely the "normal condition of many women and some men".[6] One cosmetic company has noted its historical place in industrialised societies as an "inappropriate term used by women to describe curves which they judge to be too plump and not very aesthetic".[7]

Synonyms include: adiposis edematosa, dermopanniculosis deformans, status protrusus cutis, and gynoid lipodystrophy. Descriptive names for cellulite include orange peel syndrome, and cottage cheese skin.