Interview with the Cellulite Analyst

Recently I had a chance to talk with the Cellulite Analyst who runs the Cellulite Investigation Blog.  She is interested in determining the errors in conventional thinking about cellulite, coming to a better understanding of cellulite, and learning how to get rid of cellulite.  Her work and training as an intelligence analyst are helping her to sort through the ambiguous, ambivalent, and incomplete data on cellulite.

The conventional view of cellulite can be summed up by a discussion between Dr. Oz and Oprah.  Most physicians believe that cellulite is an inevitable part of aging and although it is not that much fun, it doesn’t really matter.  Guys don’t care about it or notice it, etc…  They urge you to move quietly along and not challenge the conventional view put forward by your “betters.”

This viewpoint was disheartening to the Analyst.  Although there didn’t seem to be anything that could be done about it.  After this time she heard about dry brushing, and which she tried and noticed changes to her cellulite during her first couple of weeks.   This is very interesting because this is the same amount of time that it took Richard Morris to notice improvements in his health after shifting to a Weston Price inspired diet.  The Analyst first experienced a rash forming which she knew to expect from researching the dry brushing method. The rash disappeared in about a week.  She also got a very large canker sore, which made her think her body was undergoing some sort of detoxification process as a result of the dry brushing.  She was amazed that after just a few weeks of dry brushing, she saw what she estimated as a 50 percent decrease in her cellulite.  This improvement led her to launch her online investigation to gather similar reports from other women who have had success treating cellulite and to determine if there is a way to get rid of it completely.  The analyst also had formative experiences while spending time abroad in Scotland and Senegal.  While overseas she was not exposed to the drawbacks of the American lifestyle such as fluoridation and had remissions of her acne and cellulite.

Cellulite is a symptom of the lymphatic congestion.  The lymph system serves as a second circulatory system.  Blood carries nutrients to the cells while the lymph system removes waste from the cells.  Science has not arrived at a good understanding of the lymph system, so many of its workings are still confusing.  I found that this is true about the circulatory system as well.  In Fourfold Path to Healing, Dr. Thomas Cowan details how our understanding of the circulatory system is incorrect because the heart does not actually pump the blood out to the body:  it serves as a hydraulic ram.  When the lymph system becomes congested, it cannot get rid of all the waste.  Since the body releases of a lot of waste through the skin, it makes sense that the cellulite and other skin conditions could be caused from a buildup of waste matter.

Cellulite usually only occurs in men when they are undergoing estrogen therapy.  This seems odd to me because men should be having the same lymph problems as women.  The Analyst said that there is not a consensus on this issue.  One view is that male lymph problems may contribute to abdominal fat in males while a second view is that lymph congestion translates into heart disease in men.  One theory for waste being converted into cellulite in women (but not men) is that a woman’s body must be concerned with these toxins floating around during a pregnancy and cannot let them circulate around in the system.  In this sense, cellulite might actually be a protective mechanism.

Women have experienced success with cellulite using dry brushing and related techniques, but how much can someone expect?  Can you get completely rid of cellulite?  It turns out that the answer is yes but it requires work.  Experts such as Bronwyn Hewitt say that any woman can completely be rid of her cellulite, if she is willing to spend the time and energy to get rid of it.  Partial loss of cellulite is possible for those who can or choose not to invest as much time.

How do you get rid of cellulite?  Dry brushing is an important factor, but diet also plays a role.  Dr. Cowan says bad fats such as trans fat and vegetable oils impair the lymphatic system because anything that you don’t digest properly gets trapped in the lymph.  Lymph directly picks up the fats so you have to eat healthy fats and have healthy fat digestion by consuming high enzyme foods like sauerkraut and kvass.  Many food additives such as fluoride aggravate and cause cellulite.  Fluoride is particularly problematic to the Analyst as she has a condition called fluoroderma, which is acne caused by fluoride ingestion.

Fluoride is something that I have been bothered about recently even though my dentist insists that it is wonderful for my teeth.  The Analyst realized the role that fluoride played when her acne disappeared while she lived in Scotland but reappeared when she returned to the United States.  Unlike the United States, Scotland does not fluoridate its water.  This surprised me because I assumed the entire industrialized world fluoridated its water supply, but this is not the case.  The Analyst is particularly sensitive to fluoride, so she has found by hard experience how difficult the fluoride problem is in our culture.

First off it is nearly impossible to remove fluoride from your tap water.  Reverse osmosis filters, the most effective filters available, leave 5% of fluoride in the water.  Because fluoride is in so many sources of water, it shows up in places you would never expect.  Cereal has fluoride because cereal is made with water which is evaporated out during processing.  The water evaporates but leaves its fluoride behind.  Many pesticides are based on fluoride as the active ingredient, so the plants which we eat contain fluoride from the pesticides.  Grapes and consequently wine are especially bad.  Incidentally, before fluoride was added to the water supply it was primarily known as a rat and bug poison.  Animals are fed fluoridated water, so the fluoride builds up in their bodies and we consume fluoride when we eat these chickens and cows.  The analyst is unable to eat chicken soup because of all the fluoride which comes out of their bones into the stock.

It turns out that I share a common view on the Paleo Diet with the Cellulite Analyst.  We agree with many of the recommendations of the paleo diets, but we disagree with the philosophy behind the diet.  The primal diet advocates a return to the way man ate during his time as a hunter gatherer.  The primal diets say that everything has been downhill since we started eating grains.  The analyst and I follow the Weston Price philosophy which is that grains are not bad if properly prepared.  The Swiss and Gaelic fishermen surveyed by Weston Price ate grains and were perfectly healthy.  People were also much healthier up until the Industrial Revolution after a long period of eating grains.  Furthermore, genetics are not as set in stone as paleo diet proponents say.  Genetic expression can be turned on and off based by a person’s diet and the diet their parents ate.  Weston Price and Francis Pottenger’s work have shown that genetic strength can wax and wane over the course of just a few generations.

One of the major problems today is nutrient deficiencies.  This is an especially grave problem for women because must carry children through pregnancy which requires vast amounts of energy and nutrients.  When a woman is already nutrient deficient and then goes through child birth it can devastate her body.  The Analyst noted that a lot of her friends had difficulty having children and developed some severe health problems afterwards.  These are signs that a woman is not in good health for reproduction.  These signs are evident in a large percentage of the female population today.  Many women suffer from diseases such as yeast infections, PMS, varicose veins, and cellulite.  While these problems are not serious in and of themselves, they are a sign that a body is at less than optimal health