Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Not excess weight and not a matter of discipline, but a painful fat distribution disorder.
Also known as: lipedema · fat distribution disorder · saddlebag type · lipo-lymphedema
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
A chronic, usually inherited disorder of fat distribution — almost only in women. Subcutaneous fat increases symmetrically in the legs (often arms too), while the trunk, feet and hands stay slim (a typical “cuff” at the ankle and wrist). Important: it is not simple obesity and does not come from overeating — the affected fat barely responds to dieting. Pressure and touch pain, heaviness and easy bruising are typical. Onset or worsening often at hormonal transitions (puberty, pregnancy, menopause). Advanced stages can add a lymphedema (lipo-lymphedema). Compression, movement (especially in water) and manual lymphatic drainage can help; specialised liposuction may ease severe cases.
Flat-knitted stockings made to measure are usually felt as a clear relief for pain and heaviness. Round-knitted support stockings off the shelf tend to cut in instead.
The water pressure acts like compression from outside and at the same time takes the weight off the joints. Swimming, water gymnastics, or simply walking in chest-deep water.
In lipoedema feet and hands stay slim and it hurts; in lymphoedema the swelling reaches the toes and usually does not hurt. Both can occur together — the distinction determines what is prescribed.
Losing weight works mainly at the trunk; the distribution on legs and arms largely stays. Knowing this takes the pressure off diets experienced as personal failure — and it does not speak against movement and good food.
What is described is above all relief of tension and pressure pain for hours to days; it does not change the shape of the legs. In combination with compression it is prescribed most often.
Where, how strong, at which touch, how many bruises without a cause. These notes are what carries an application for cover of compression or therapy.
There is no drug for lipoedema, and water tablets do not help — the tissue holds not water but fat. Compression and movement lower pain and heaviness, they do not change the shape. What changes the shape is liposuction using a lymph-sparing technique; it reduces the affected tissue lastingly, and pain recedes in a large share of people over the following six to twelve months. Losing weight changes the affected areas little.
It almost always begins in phases of hormonal change: puberty, pregnancy, menopause. Those affected are almost only women. The fatty tissue on legs and sometimes arms is tender to pressure and bruises easily; feet and hands stay spared — that boundary is exactly what separates it from lymphoedema. After liposuction, pain and heaviness improve in a large share over six to twelve months.
Key distinction: unlike lymphedema the feet and toes are spared; unlike mere overweight it is painful and diet-resistant.
No value proves a lipoedema — the pattern of distribution, tenderness and the examination do. These values separate it from swellings that have another cause.
A low protein in the blood lets water leak into the tissue. That explains swellings that pit when pressed — with lipoedema it is different.
Kidneys and heart are the commonest reasons for swelling in both legs. Both belong checked before the distribution of fatty tissue is explained.
The value of the heart. If normal it speaks strongly against heart failure as the cause of the swelling.
They lower the blood fats and act on the excitability of the heart muscle. Oily sea fish twice a week is the best-supported route; very high doses from capsules are not a harmless more.
Keeps the rhythm steady and lowers blood pressure. Water tablets drive it down, certain blood pressure drugs and a weak kidney drive it up — which is why it is checked under treatment.
A lack favours extra beats and at the same time keeps a potassium deficiency going. Anyone replacing only the potassium sees no success while the magnesium is missing.
Less salt lowers blood pressure measurably, and most of it is not in the salt cellar but in bread, cheese, cured meat and ready meals. With very low blood pressure the opposite applies.
No supplement dissolves lipedema fat. Water tablets don’t help lipedema and can harm with long-term use.
Effects on inflammation and triglycerides established; cardiovascular prevention is mixed. Watch quality and freshness.
Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.
Onset and worsening often track hormonal transitions — an estrogen link is suspected but not fully established.
Healthy eating helps overall health and any accompanying overweight — but the lipedema fat itself doesn’t melt away. This is not a matter of willpower.
Movement in water is well tolerated, because the pressure also decongests. Neither movement nor diet acts on the lipoedema itself — said plainly, because many hear the opposite for years.
Lymph drainage eases tightness and pain. It does not change the fat tissue itself — the benefit lies in the symptoms, not in the circumference.