Let's talk about cellulite...Not in vanity but from a health perspective....
Gaining understanding about cellulite -
Imagine walking around telling people "I accept the toxic build up in my cells and blood stream and will never rid of them". Would you? Maybe not intentionally but unintentionally those who have curves, cellulite and even thin girls with cellulite that claim to be happy with their bodies need to understand what cellulite is, what it harbours and how unhealthy this is.
What is it?
Cellulite is a lumpy fat deposit that commonly manifests on thighs, buttocks, hips and waist. It is almost exclusively a condition that affects women, occurring in 85% to 98% of women after puberty.
Since cellulite is the visible manifestation of multiple pathologic processes, one cannot reasonably expect a single agent to effectively treat this disease. These lumps are actually collections of fat that are pushing against the connective tissue under the skin, as a result, the dermis (the layer of skin beneath the outermost layer) weakens in cellulite-prone areas, paving the way for swollen fat cells to protrude to the surface.
This causes the surface of the skin to have an unattractive appearance. The longer it sits there, the harder it is to remove. A lot of people suffer from "cellulite build-up" which is really a toxic build-up, manifested in orange peel skin and cottage cheese thighs and buttocks.
No, you don't even need to be overweight or obese to have cellulite - thin and slender people suffer as much from cellulite, as their heftier counterparts. I’m here to say (although you don’t want to hear it) that no matter how perfect or sexy your body - cellulite is unattractive on anybody and it does not contribute to the health of the collagen, elastin, connective tissues or adipocytes in your skin.
Imagine walking around telling people "I accept the toxic build up in my cells and blood stream and will never rid of them". Would you? Maybe not intentionally but unintentionally those who have curves, cellulite and even thin girls with cellulite that claim to be happy with their bodies need to understand what cellulite is, what it harbours and how unhealthy this is.
What is it?
Cellulite is a lumpy fat deposit that commonly manifests on thighs, buttocks, hips and waist. It is almost exclusively a condition that affects women, occurring in 85% to 98% of women after puberty.
Since cellulite is the visible manifestation of multiple pathologic processes, one cannot reasonably expect a single agent to effectively treat this disease. These lumps are actually collections of fat that are pushing against the connective tissue under the skin, as a result, the dermis (the layer of skin beneath the outermost layer) weakens in cellulite-prone areas, paving the way for swollen fat cells to protrude to the surface.
This causes the surface of the skin to have an unattractive appearance. The longer it sits there, the harder it is to remove. A lot of people suffer from "cellulite build-up" which is really a toxic build-up, manifested in orange peel skin and cottage cheese thighs and buttocks.
No, you don't even need to be overweight or obese to have cellulite - thin and slender people suffer as much from cellulite, as their heftier counterparts. I’m here to say (although you don’t want to hear it) that no matter how perfect or sexy your body - cellulite is unattractive on anybody and it does not contribute to the health of the collagen, elastin, connective tissues or adipocytes in your skin.
The main remedy for fighting cellulite is to detoxify the
body. But not with medications or the latest detox celebrities rave about and definitely
not even proclaimed cellulite targeting body creams......
“The truth is getting rid of and fighting cellulite can be easy, but needs dedication and consistent work.”
“The truth is getting rid of and fighting cellulite can be easy, but needs dedication and consistent work.”
What causes it?
Cellulite is mainly caused by toxin build-up in your body, with the body not getting rid of the toxins, and causing cellulite. Miracle cures are offered from many sources to fight it, but there is NO miracle - yet it can be removed. In my years of research there are some topical and oral treatments that can aid in the removal/break down of toxins but not alone.
Cellulite is mainly caused by toxin build-up in your body, with the body not getting rid of the toxins, and causing cellulite. Miracle cures are offered from many sources to fight it, but there is NO miracle - yet it can be removed. In my years of research there are some topical and oral treatments that can aid in the removal/break down of toxins but not alone.
There are many factors when it comes to cellulite but it all
comes down to diet (not in terms of restricting calories but rather what you
are eating) and digestion.
Let us talk more on ‘toxins’
Our body was designed to continuously and naturally remove cancer and disease causing toxins. There are two kinds of toxins; water soluble and fat soluble. Water soluble toxins are easily flushed out of the body via the blood and kidneys, but the fat soluble toxins are a challenge for the body to remove. These fat soluble toxins are man-made toxins like heavy metals, parasites, pesticides, preservatives, food additives, pollutants, plastics and other environmental chemicals. If our digestive and detox pathways are not functioning optimally, these toxins find their way to the liver, blood, fat cells and brain where they store indefinitely and cause disease.
For example, in one study done on a fat soluble, aggressive, cancer causing chemical called dioxin was removed from human fat cells where it had been stored for 25 years. Storing toxins is unacceptable!
Diseases related to these ingested toxins are almost impossible to calculate because they are so vast and insidious. Even so, according to the Center of Children’s Health and the Environment, an average of 54.9 billion dollars a year is spent researching toxicity’s relation to four diseases in children; asthma, lead poisoning, cancer and neurobehavioral disorders. Imagine the cost if every toxin-related disease for both children and adults were being addressed. The costs would be astronomical.
So how do you release toxins?
Our body was designed to continuously and naturally remove cancer and disease causing toxins. There are two kinds of toxins; water soluble and fat soluble. Water soluble toxins are easily flushed out of the body via the blood and kidneys, but the fat soluble toxins are a challenge for the body to remove. These fat soluble toxins are man-made toxins like heavy metals, parasites, pesticides, preservatives, food additives, pollutants, plastics and other environmental chemicals. If our digestive and detox pathways are not functioning optimally, these toxins find their way to the liver, blood, fat cells and brain where they store indefinitely and cause disease.
For example, in one study done on a fat soluble, aggressive, cancer causing chemical called dioxin was removed from human fat cells where it had been stored for 25 years. Storing toxins is unacceptable!
Diseases related to these ingested toxins are almost impossible to calculate because they are so vast and insidious. Even so, according to the Center of Children’s Health and the Environment, an average of 54.9 billion dollars a year is spent researching toxicity’s relation to four diseases in children; asthma, lead poisoning, cancer and neurobehavioral disorders. Imagine the cost if every toxin-related disease for both children and adults were being addressed. The costs would be astronomical.
So how do you release toxins?
Primarily digestion. I believe that if we keep our digestion, stress levels and detoxification pathways balanced, we can prevent dangerous chemicals and toxins from storing in our bodies.
When we digest a meal, the nutritional and toxic fats are shuffled through the stomach into the small intestine where bile secreted from the liver and gall bladder emulsifies them. In the small intestine, millions of small villi and lacteals, which are little finger-like grasses that sweep the gut, help absorb nutritional fats and remove dangerous toxic fats. If this detoxification pathway is not working the body absorbs the toxic fats, rather than removing them.
The very beginning of the body’s lymphatic system is The Gut Associated Lymphatic Tissues (GALT), which surrounds the entire intestinal tract. It is here that lacteals help absorb and process nutritional and toxic fats. The inside of the gut wall must have those villi and lacteals functioning well and the inch on the outside of the gut (which is that lymph tissue) must not be congested.
Other detoxification pathways such as sweating and urinating are critical in regaining balance and eliminating toxins. An other article on the detoxification pathways will be up soon.
To help capture some key points on cellulite lets reverse our outlook. Let us take a look at the most researched and factual contributors of cellulite:
In general cellulite arises from a number of age-related physiological changes in women:
Poor diet
Slow metabolism
Lack of physical activity
Exhaustive dieting
Dehydration
Total body fat
Thickness and color of skin
Poor circulation
Lymphatic drainage
Most of you will be able to identify a couple or many of these factors as contributing to your cellulite.
So the best way forward is to implement change with the above you do have immediate control of, such as increasing physical activity and drinking more water (I suggest filtered). Already you'll have introduced two new habits that will become part of your lifestyle for life.
Factors such as emotional well being, stress and environment are changeable with consistency in working through issues (not masking them) and changing the amount of environment toxicity we expose ourselves to, such products around the home like fly spray, house cleaners, pesticides in the garden and products we use on our skin and pets. This again will be an entirely separate article available soon.
Now, if you are a 'yo yo' dieter, this must stop immediately. The body will send messages to the brain if it feels deprived of nutrients. Most 'yo yo' dieters will deplete the body of essential nutrients and are uneducated in understanding that 'weight loss' (on the scales) doesn't necessarily mean fat loss. In fact 2/3 of what is lost in 'yo yo' dieters and crash dieting is in fact muscle. And muscle does indeed weigh more than fat!
Which brings us to the all important factor of diet and digestion. I bet the majority of you reading this have issue with constipation or diarrhea, 'IBS', gluten intolerance, allergies, bloating.... Shall I go on?
You need to know both constipation and loose stools store toxins
There are many factors that could irritate the intestinal villi and compromise their function. A history of constipation will dry out these villi (grass-like mucus membranes) and force them to produce a reactive mucus. If this mucus is excessive, the stools could appear normal (2-3 regular bowel movements a day) but you could still be unhealthy and bloated or carrying that extra belly weight. If the mucus is even more excessive, the stools can become looser, diarrhea-like and more frequent. If you EVER see mucus in your stool, this should be addressed right away.
Basically, the villi become stuck and cannot function in the excess mucus.This means that even if the bile successfully broke down the fat soluble toxins in the small intestine, the GALT will not be able to remove them from the body. Normally, white blood cells in your immune system and 500+ lymph nodes will attack these toxins and naturally neutralize them. But if mucus is excessive, this may not happen.
Some of the other causes for irritation that compromise the intestinal villi are stress, worry, anxiety, food additives, processed food, coffee, soft drinks and hyper acidity - to name just a few.
So what now?
The aim of this article is to encourage women to get out there and research cellulite and toxins. This is not to leave you feeling you need to be a 'size 0' at all either. It's about understanding that by living a life as natural as possible, eating clean, exercising and minimising toxins going into the body and your immediate environment, your body will slowly flush out years of toxic build up which will also contribute to shedding fat, thus improving physical appearance: not in vanity but by respecting your body.
We should all be proud of our bodies but having been in the health & fitness industries plus having started my new venture in organic skin care products, I see all too often women are being victimized and forced to believe forces of nature are to blame to the majority of our issues, therefor the only cure is pharmaceutical. I say no no no no no ...........
I am simply here to advocate that while our bodies may change with age, injuries, being exposed to environmental toxins and so on...we as women... as human beings have every single resource available to us to feed and nourish our bodies with organic produce and natural products, being active and seeking help through difficult emotional times. We are capable of finding balance and being in control!
If knowing what you've gained some more insight to now doesn't make you want to change the appearance of your cellulite based on a health perspective, not just vanity.... that is your choice.
Subscribe to Ultimate-Women for more articles relating to detox and emotional well being published soon...
Useful herbs that can help flush toxins from the liver, cells and blood
Ginger Ginger, or Zingiber officinale. It promotes circulation.
Ocimum Sanctum Holy Basil Tulsi, botanically identified as Ocimum sanctum, and also described as holy basil. Its qualities are laghu (light)–and Ruksha (dry) which makes it useful in restraining fat.
Tribulus Errestris Prevents water retention.
Centella Asiatica Improves circulation.
Glycirhiza Glabra (Liqorice) and Guggul or Commiphora Mukul are also useful for cellulite.
Beauty from within to skin-
Georgia
