“I and other specialists have been talking about chronic, low-grade inflammation in relation to metabolism, nutrition and cellulite (my specialisation) for more than two decades now and finally the beauty industry is catching up with the fancy word “inflammaging” after two lost decades. Inflammaging or chronic, low grade inflammation affects all body organs and systems, including skin, connective tissue in general, adipose tissue and blood vessels, i.e. all the tissues that make up what we call cellulite.”
What is inflammaging and how does it affect cellulite and skin firmness?
Inflammation or chronic, low-grade 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?
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Inflammation or chronic, low-grade inflammation: a major aspect of cellulite
Inflammaging (ageing due to inflammation or inflammation due to ageing, it is seen both ways) 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.
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 in younger ages, mainly due to:
Overeating/unhealthy eating, which leads to metabolic inflammation, pre-diabetes and diabetes
Alcohol consumption
Lack of physical activity
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, i.e. 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.
In contrast, normal deep (subcutaneous) 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 industry 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, vegetables, berry fruits, fruits in general, low carbs, low saturated fats, no sugar etc
Exercise
Good sleep
Reduced stress (if that's only possible!)
Probiotics/prebiotics
Avoiding smoking/alcohol
Topical anti-aging / cellulite treatments (deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency, high-power ultrasound cavitation, strong cellulite-specific massage etc)
Are there any relevant nutrients, supplements or skincare actives?
We can also help reduce inflammaging with anti-inflammatory / antioxidant / anti-glycation nutrients, contained in foods, nutritional supplements, concentrated skincare creams, such as:
Resveratrol and pterostilbene (berry fruits, pomegranates)
Curcumin (turmeric)
EGCG (green tea)
Berberine
Chlorogenic acid (green coffee berry)
Cocoa flavanols
Centella asiatica / gotu kola
Quercetin, rutin, hesperidin (citrus fruits)
…among many other polyphenols and carotenoids
Have a treatment in London with the cellulite experts
At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.
This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.
As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.
(Of course, we keep looking for new technologies every day and if/when a better technology materialises we will be the first to provide it. However, we will never follow the latest ineffective gimmick, just because it’s good marketing to offer the latest hyped up - yet ineffective and/or unsafe treatment.)
Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.
And for even better, faster results, we now combine our RF/ultrasound treatments with high-power red/infrared light LED treatment.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound/LED treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.
(No unsafe and ineffective RF microneedling or HIFU and no safe but ineffective acoustic wave therapy, superficial RF (bipolar/tripolar/multipolar etc), low power RF/cavitation, electrical muscle stimulation, lymphatic massage, cupping, dry brushing and no ridiculous bum bum creams.)
Our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.
We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.
The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening
Why train with The Cellulite School™?
We all know that training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening is as basic as it gets. It is typically a 4-6 hour training, involving only basic instruction from the manufacturer on how operators can use the machine; lots of myths, erroneous information and misconceptions; and some basic health and safety on how to use the machine.
There is no proper, real training in the science or cellulite, skin tightening, radiofrequency, ultrasound and all related technologies is non-existent - worldwide.
Do you want to deeply understand radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, LED phototherapy, cellulite and skin tightening?
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