Cryolipolysis, ultrasound, radiofrequency, LED … methods pushed by aesthetic centers would make cellulite and beads disappear. However, nothing proves their effectiveness. Worse, some are risky.
“Dumb without surgery? Is it possible!” Promises an aesthetic medicine center. “In a few weeks, your silhouette is sublimated and redesigned”, “up to less 30% reduction in fat cells”, adds another. “This treatment will act on the fatty fabric by liquidating fats which will help dissolve fatty clusters,” abounds a third.
Losing fat, a few centimeters of waist or making cellulite disappear effortlessly, these promises are common in centers and aesthetics firms where new methods flourish regularly. Among the many offers proposed: cryolipolysis (a technique by cold), ultrasound (sound waves), radiofrequency (electromagnetic waves) or LEDs (infrared light).
Note that if we distinguish three types of fat (under the deepest layer of the skin, around the stomach, and in the muscles), cellulite is only a concept without real scientific reality.
“In general, we designate cellulite an aesthetic discomfort, mainly in women, due to a fatty heap in certain areas including buttocks, hips or thighs. But in medical language, cellulite is quite something (an infection of subcutaneous fabrics, editor’s note)”, explains the venerologist-dermatologist Marie-Estelle Roux.
“There are women who have cellulite, that is to say a padded appearance of the skin on certain areas, but who do not have many fats”, nuances that which is also a member of the National Union of Dermatologists-Venereologists. “We can therefore be slim and have cellulite.”
“No method is lost fat”
But can we get rid of it? For David Boccara, plastic surgeon at Saint-Louis Hospital (AP-HP), specialist in the subject, the effectiveness of the methods offered in aesthetics cabinet remains “modest” in thin subjects who would like to make one or two beads disappear, in zero in overweight subjects.
“Yes, certain methods can, in some people and in certain areas, stimulate venous and lymphatic circulation, break the fibrous clusters and smooth the skin. But it is transient. Most often, it only changes the arrangement of the adipose tissue.”
“No method is truly losing fat and even fewer pounds.”
Often very expensive methods – from the order of several hundred euros – which can also sometimes be the cause of complications. Aesthetic undesirable effects – like a hollow in the treated areas or a movement of fat – to more serious medical complications.
Because the risks linked to the use of some of these machines are real, deplores David Boccara, also a professor at the University of Paris specializing in aesthetic reconstructive plastic surgery. For example with cryolipolysis, this doctor has identified cases of serious burns requiring operations and transplants as a result of necrosis.
An alert of the High Authority for Health
In an evaluation report published in 2018, the High Authority for Health (HAS) denounced “serious or severe” complications (burn, hernia, localized increase in fatty fabric) and concludes that “the practice of cryolipolysis acts has a suspicion of serious danger to human health”. The HAS also pointed to the safety and quality defects of the devices, as well as the lack of training of the personnel who handle them. “
In any case, whether it is to lose adipose tissue or firm the skin, nothing will ever be as effective as a healthy diet, poor in refined sugars, as well as a regular practice of physical activity, especially in water to stimulate lymphatic drainage “, recalls dermatologist Marie-Estelle Roux.
“In reality, there is no miracle remedy against cellulite.”
If the adipose tissue is often reduced to a heap of fat which we would like to get rid of, it nevertheless fulfills important physiological functions. It is indeed an important energy reservoir.
“If necessary, the triglycerides contained in adipocytes can be cut to form fatty acids and substances called glycerols,” explains the Vidal. The latter are then transformed into glucose which is transported in the blood to provide fuel to the organs and the brain.
It should not be forgotten either that the human body is designed to store fat; The adipose tissue appears in the fetus from the second trimester of pregnancy. In healthy and overweight men, fat represents 15 to 20% of body weight. In women, it is more: 20 to 25%.
