Miracle or myth? The cellulite cures
A new remedy for dimpled thighs leaves doctors sceptical

Until the Sixties British women had never heard of cellulite. Not that it didn't exist, of course, but it was not until miniskirts were de rigueur that the term crossed the Atlantic to hit the consciousness of Vogue readers.

Thirty years later cellulite has become an industry in itself, and yesterday the exuberant London launch of the latest cellulite-banishing product was heavy with the kind of hype that only the beauty industry can inspire.

"World peace is a great thing to hope for and much more imporant than thin thighs," said a spokeswoman for Cellasene. At least, she continued enthusiastically, women can achieve one of these with the new product.

Her unspoken message was all too clear: forget world peace, what women really want is smooth thighs. If this seems like one of the more ridiculous statements made about cellulite (and there have been many) consider this: when the herbal pills were launched in Australia last year scuffles were reported in chemists. Fifty-thousand packets were sold within the hour, and one packet was auctioned for more than £500.

Yesterday at a Hyde Park hotel the audience was only marginally less excitable. They may have been well-groomed, but one could only assume that beneath the languid lines of their tailoring lurked dimples. Their enthusiasm for the free samples of Cellasene was undimmed throughout the two-hour presentation.

The new remedy is the brainchild of Gianfranco Merizzi, a a slim, dark scientist whose ancestors were apothecaries in the Italian Alps. Yet as every doctor will tell you, the medical establishment dismisses Cellasene and other such "cures" as modern-day snake oil, and men such as Dr Merizzi as deluded.

Cellulite is not a medically recognised term. The scientific world uses the more prosaic "fat", while marketing men call it "sellulite" (about 80 per cent of women have dimpled fat on their bodies, a statistic that has helped to prop up a cellulite-prevention industry that is worth £12 million a year in Britain alone).

Just listen to Dr Merizzi, whose remedy costs £70 for a three-month course: "There is a lot of confusion today as a lot of doctors do not understand what cellulite is; they say it is just fat." Instead, female hormones make the blood vessels more porous, he explains, leading to congestion in the tissue around the thighs, hips and bottom. This blockage starves the area of oxygen and the connective tissue degenerates, causing the dimpling effect.

Merizzi's product uses herbal ingredients such as ginkgo biloba, yellow sweet clover and iodine-rich kelp or bladderwrack seaweed, which, he says, increases the metabolic rate and stimulates circulation.

Since its launch in Italy five years ago, 50 women have participated in trials. A study released yesterday, using 40 women (too few to impress doctors) showed an average reduction of 2.47 per cent in hip measurements in eight weeks.

Tests on other anti-cellulite products carried out last year by Health Which? suggested that they were more likely to shrink bank balances than thighs. Ten leading creams had no effect on subcutaneous fat. The Consumers' Association magazine asked the manufacturers for clinical proof that the products worked, but said some of the theories put forward "bore no resemblance to any proven facts".

Yet listening to Dr Merizzi, all this forgotten. While British doctors advise people to lose weight and to exercise, he says that neither is important to shift dimpled blubber.

Anthony Chu, a consultant dermatologist at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, says: "From a scientific point of view cellulite doesn't exist - it's just fat. From a scientific point of view some herbs and a bit of iodine are not going to have any effect on fat.

"And from a common-sense point of view, if it has been on the market in Italy for five years and it really works, why haven't women been throwing their knickers in the air and demanding that it be sold everywhere immediately?"

Although Cellasene's manufacturers claim to be introducing "just a 50 per cent" mark-up on ingredients that they argue are much more potent than those sold by Chinese herbalists, others believe they are making much more profit. Trudy Mills, the information officer for the National Institue of Medical Herbalists, claims that the ingredients for one packet were likely to cost only £1.

But then some money must be left over for marketing, such as the 10,000 "Don't Panic, There's Still Some Cellasene Left" badges made for pharmacists in America.

After the initial hysteria has died down, Cellasene's claims can seem hard to swallow. Many Australian women are not so sure about its "miracle" qualities. One of them interviewed on Australian TV this week did not notice any change to her cellulite in the first month, but by the second she noticed some results.

"It's normally family and friends who ask. I have to show them and ask 'What do you think?'", she told Channel 9's A Current Affair. "Some people say it looks a little different and others say it hasn't done a thing," she added.

Another woman, Cheryl, said that she had not noticed any difference.

Jo also took Cellasene. Although she lost 3kg, the cellulite is still there. "I wouldn't take them - I think they are misleading," she said.

It seems that women may be disappointed yet again. Perhaps we should spend less time worrying about dimpled thighs and more about world peace after all.