Also known as edematous fibroscleroticpanniculopathy or subcutaneous gelodes fibroedema, cellulitis represents one of the biggest esthetic problems that the modern woman faces.
The term by which this pathology is defined expresses in some way the three periods that this ailment goes through: fibrosis, sclerosis and edema. The seriousness of this topic lies on the fact that this located lipodystrophy is not solved with a diet; unlike other “fatnesses” which do respond to a regime of food.
In the case of cellulitis, it does not only deal with fat “trapped” in immobile compartments, but waste and water also participate like additional elements. The cellulitic zone works like a big sponge, which attracts by osmosis the water generating an edematized zone which sticks out on the skin surface, forming small bulges which form the known “orange peel”.
Etiology
The causes that give origin to cellulitis obey several factors:
a) Heredity
Heredity plays an important role on young women descendant of mothers or grand-mothers with cellulitis. The incidence overcomes widely the 50% of possibilities of contracting cellulitis in a direct descendant.
b) Hormonal Factors
As it is not observed in men, the cellulitis presents a strong relationship with the level of circulatory estrogens. That’s why its insidious evolution starts during puberty becoming more serious when the estrogen-progesterone relation increases in the woman, as it happens during pregnancy.
c) Circulatory
The fact that there exists a deficient circulation in the affected area diminishes the possibilities of accelerating the focal metabolism, avoiding a good drainage of waste elements that must be eliminated from the body. Likewise, the hereditary predisposition that the peripheral vascular affections such as varices have is well known.
Within the external elements that influence negatively on circulation, tobacco through nicotine and tar contributes very much either for this problem to happen or to avoid a correct pharmacological treatment.
d) Dietary
Even though hypocaloric diets do not achieve a satisfactory task in the elimination of this esthetic problem, they undoubtedly collaborate in the body general functioning. For example, diets rich in fats or alcohol contribute to provoke a bad hepatic function, which is essential in the correct elimination of organic detritus by classical secretory glands.
Likewise, the diets that lack fibrosis elements generate constipation or costiveness, which becomes an important factor of retention of waste elements. The absence of the correct ingesta of liquids (less than 1.5 litres per day) conspires with the good metabolic functioning of the skin.
e) Physical Activity
Just like the diet, the physical activity is not decisive to control this disease. However, the fact of practicing sports or doing physical exercise or walking periodically and synchronized, contribute to improve broadly speaking the organic metabolism, accelerating the circulation, the catabolic processes and improving the muscle tone of the affected areas. Logically, being sedentary turns into a big enemy of the good evolution that the medical treatment can generate.
One of the tissues that has a fundamental role in the cellulitis formation process is the connective or conjunctive tissue. This tissue is mainly composed by a kind of support network where the adipose cells are located. The elements conductors of nutrients such as blood and lymphatic vessels also go to this tissue.
The liquids that fluid through these vessels contain oxygen and nutritive substances essential for the skin. This cession of nutrients is carried out at the expense of receiving waste elements from cell catabolism, which conditions the area like an important interchange region that makes the elements that integrate this zone be undamaged and in physiological fulfillment.
All these factors alter in some way the elimination process of toxic substances from the tissues. That’s why they contribute for the circulatory disorders to appear caused by female hormones.
Classification
According to the process extension, cellulitis can be generalized or localized.
Generalized:
It appears almost exclusively in obese women with unbalanced food habits. It begins during the puberty, accompanied by obesity noticeable on abdomen and muscles, tending to form edemas, especially in legs. When the woman is in her twenties, there are sudden weight gains caused by emotional factors (anxiety, depression), medicines (anti conceptive dose) or proper alterations of pregnancies, abortions and childbirths. When the woman is in her forties, the obesity turns progressively, being complicated with incipient arthrosis processes, that obliges to posture changes that finally alter the corporal harmony. When the woman is in her fifties, the menopausal syndrome appears. The tendency to gain weight, emotional stress and sedentary life constitute risk factors which make the process worse.
Localized:
The cellulitis localized originates painful phenomena, whose intensity is not always related to the dimensions of the infiltrate. The most preferred zones by cellulitis are: rear and internal upper part of thighs; knee internal part, abdomen, clunes, ankles, back lower part, arm upper part, back upper part, just under the shoulders.
