By Doctor Philippe Blanchemaison
“Since I’ve been on a diet, I look much better in clothes but I still look terrible without them!” Sagging skin can be an unsightly side-effect of weight loss, and one which many people are concerned about. The key protein in this phenomenon is collagen.”
Collagen is the protein that supports our skin, helps it to keep its shape and makes it firmer.
After a weight-loss regime, we often see a loss of volume in the hypodermis and visible slackening of the skin. In young people, this slackening is remedied by their natural collagen production, but in older people certain internal and external factors make the skin firming process much slower. In particular, free radicals found in our environment slow down the production of collagen by the fibroblasts and collagen glycation (the bonding of a protein molecule with a glucose molecule from our food) leads to a structural deformity in the protein, rendering it unable to carry out its role as a support.
How to stimulate collagen production?
Specialist techniques are required in order to firm up mature skin. One technique in particular – cellular stretching – enables us to stimulate the production of healthy collagen by the fibroblasts.
Cellular stretching
Using a negative-pressure therapy device that combines triple-roller massage heads with special patented accessories, a vacuum is applied vertically to the area of skin to be treated. The fibroblasts react to the suction pressure by producing more collagen in order to counter the deformation of the skin. The innovation of this method lies in its therapeutic index: the treatment is carried out using three times less pressure than current techniques but its action reaches deeper into the tissue. This discovery enables us to carry out stimulation treatments that rehabilitate the cells without damaging the tissue. We are simply stimulating a natural mechanism in order to fight against skin sagging.
A recent study showed a loss of up to 1.3cm around the arms (photo) and 2.1cm around the thighs. The skin is noticeably firmer (skin elasticity improved by 49%) and smoother, making the treatment areas look more toned.
This study illustrates the effect that cellular stretching has on stimulating collagen and thus firming up the skin.
Fighting skin sagging from all sides
Sagging skin should be treated in a comprehensive way, taking into consideration the patient’s diet and muscle tone. However, cellular stretching alone has achieved good results on localised skin sagging. The observations made during this first study have led us to believe that cellular stretching would be an ideal complement to invasive procedures such as liposuction or injections, in order to improve the firmness of the skin and restructure the connective tissue.
Doctor Philippe Blanchemaison
MD, a vascular medicine specialist. He was associated with the Paris public hospital system and was the chief editor of “International Vascular News” during 7 years. Director of Education at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Paris VI, Author of 264 published medical articles, chairman or coordinator of research projects about vascular medicine (Microcirculation, Venous thrombosis evaluation), treatment of cellulite, vascular face rejuvenation and original protocols for Spa (creation of Aquabiking in 2001).
