Lipedema Explained: Causes, Symptoms & Natural Health Tips | Dr. Janine

[00:00:00]For many women, lipedema goes undiagnosed for years. Maybe you've never heard of what lipedema, some people say lymphedema, is, well, this video is for you. We're going to talk about practical ways to support your body naturally for lipedema. So, what is lipedema? Well, it's chronic inflammation in the fat cells of women, and this mostly affects women, in the legs, and often is confused with cellulite. Also happens in the hips, in the buttocks, in the arm area as well.

[00:00:31]And there could be also easy bruising and capillary fragility, meaning that the actual blood vessels have holes punched in them, and now we've got that inflammatory response and fluid leaking out of the blood vessels, causing that lipedema. And the more inflammation we have, the more pain we have, the more easy bruising, that is a common symptom as well, with chronic lipedema. Now, another correlation, which is so common, is a lot of women have been discovered who have lipedema also have hypermobility. So, if you've heard of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, EDS, and this is an inherited genetic disorder that weakens the body's connective tissues, and now one of the symptomatology of that could be the lipedema. Other common symptoms of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is overly flexible joints. You could have stretchy or fragile skin as well, and loss of that collagen, but lipedema is a part of this and the inflammatory response as well. So, when we talk about the causes of lipedema, let's go through my list. Number one on my list, and this has actually been researched, is vitamin D deficiency. So, knowing what your status is for your vitamin D becomes very important, especially if you have the swelling in, especially your legs.

[00:01:48]You thought it was cellulite, but maybe it is the lipedema. As we can see in this study, there's a definitely a comorbidity of the vitamin D deficiency and lipedema. Number two on my list is poor circulation also found in that same study and there is this correlation with lower limb venous insufficiency. So we know that the blood vessels become damaged, the fluid is leaking out and that circulation becomes compromised.

[00:02:14]Number three on my list is leptin resistance. So chronic inflammation causing that leptin resistance which then translates into number four on my list which is the insulin resistance. So now you've got blood glucose issues, you've got insulin issues and your brain is not reading the right signals as to what's going on downstream from your biochemistry that's happening in your brain and of course the brain regulates all of our hormones. Leptin and insulin are very closely tied to one another and cause that chronic inflammation which compounds number five on my list which is low thyroid. So this was also found in that same study which thyroid if you've heard me talk about thyroid issues before and low thyroid related back to your leptin signaling and the leptin resistance. So this is something that you know thyroid disease direct correlation to the lipedema as well. So if you're watching this and you're thinking, "Okay, maybe this is me. I've got the swelling in my legs. Maybe you've tried, you know, weight loss, you've tried exercise, movement and you still have the puffiness in your legs.

[00:03:17]It can be in the arms as well." And you're wondering, "Okay, is this me?"

[00:03:20]Well, it may very well be. So one of my tips here to help with your lipedema is to fix your leptin resistance. So that's going to help with that proper signaling from your brain to your fat cells as to your state of affairs. Do you have enough fat? Do you need to go and find more food? Fixing that whole mechanism becomes really important to fix that overall inflammation causing that lipedema. I've got more tips and I want you to learn about this if you don't know about leptin resistance in my other video 10 tips to fix leptin resistance.

[00:03:52]I'll see you there.