In the month of June, we are paying special attention to lipedema awareness. Because this disease occurs among as many as 10% of women, has far-reaching consequences and despite this, is still diagnosed with great difficulty and delay. While treating lipedema can prevent the disease from completely controlling your life.
Although Lipedema is common in women, it is rarely diagnosed or diagnosed. Also called Painful Fat Syndrome, Lipedema means fat swelling or fat and fluid accumulation. A chronic accumulation of fatty tissue (especially in the legs and arms) that occurs from left to right. This is further combined with a tendency to [...]
Held by: Catherine Seo, PhD Co-Director, The Lipedema Project.
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What's interesting. The ketogenic diet seems to give gains in volume reduction in a number of lipedema patients: also of lipedema fat!
MALIKA SEVIL
The body can unpleasantly surprise with strange outgrowths. An eyelid that starts twitching at regular intervals, localized hair loss or an inexplicable itch. Today: lipedema.
Pants size 44, waist size 38. With lipedema, a difference of three clothing sizes is no exception. The condition is chronic, disfiguring, painful, restrictive and often overlooked, says dermatologist Hajo Bruining of Resculpt Clinic.
In lipedema, the fat cells in the legs and sometimes the arms show abnormal growth starting at puberty, making movement more difficult. Over time, the skin can also become irregular and it hurts. "It is especially sensitive to pressure, touch and abrupt movements, such as when you play sports. It can be painful even if someone pinches your leg for fun. This often leaves a bruise, because women with lipedema bruise easily."
It occurs only in women. "It seems there is something wrong with the combustion engine of these fat cells," he said. According to Bruining, lipedema is often not recognized by doctors. Women who report to the doctor are advised to exercise more and eat less. So they lose weight, even though this does not reduce the symptoms. The yo-yoing actually worsens the fat swelling, says Bruining. "I always explain it this way: it's like a valve on a fat cell. It goes in, but it doesn't go out as easily anymore."
He advises patients to exercise a lot anyway. Swim or bike, especially sports where the arms and legs take little impact. The dietician will recommend eating few carbohydrates. Because patients with this ailment also often suffer from lymph fluid in the legs, compression stockings are used.
But also manual lymphatic drainage (getting rid of the fluid with hand massage) or pneumatic compression therapy, where air tubes around the leg massage the fluid to a place where the body can drain it more easily.
More invasive but a lot more effective is liposuction under local anesthesia, Bruining says. "In this, most of the lipedema fat is removed. The fat that's gone stays gone. If you don't gain weight, you can benefit for decades."
On June 9 and 10, 2017, we exchanged information on lipedema at the international level. What was clearly emphasized here, among other things, is that liposuction provides lasting improvement in the symptoms associated with lipedema. Performing lymphatic drainage before and after treatment is very important.
There was also a presentation on the differences between normal and lipedema fat. The difference from healthy fat is that lipedema has increased cell division, CD90 CD 146 increased (due to TNF-alpha produced by macrophages) and decreased adipogenesis. There is also difference in adipocyte morphology.
For the entire program, see the post about the International Congress on Lipedema.
On June 10, 2017, the 6th Dutch Lipedema Day took place in Vaeshartelt (Maastricht), whose pictorial work of this condition we may use as an image for this news item.
On June 9 and 10, 2017, the first international congress on lipedema was held in Vienna. Here people gathered, from America, Brazil, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, among others, who deal with lipedema on a daily basis.
We will be present in Vienna to share knowledge and again to make more known about this burdensome abnormality of adipose tissue that affects about 10% of women. We will share a summary of the congress with you here. You can find more information about lipedema on our website.
A new Dutch-based scientific study (Halk AB, Damstra RJ. Phebology 2016), "First Dutch guidelines on lipedema using the international classification offunctioning,disability and health," examined the treatment of lipedema. In doing so, they reviewed all internationally available research and studies on the subject.The conclusion of this study is that in individuals with lipedema, treatment should consist of multiple pillars, namely:
The above advice is consistent with the National Guideline on Lipedema.