I am going to make a few posts on this thread as they are about different topics and I don’t want to write a book all in one.
Previous cranky forum members griping at each other got my first thread on this topic closed, so please beat each other up privately and not in my thread this time ok. 
First post topic: LIPEDEMA
My family “has” this syndrome/condition, although it is “maybe” familial but no clear evidence it always is or has to be.
Lipedema allegedly affects more than 10% of women in the USA and other western countries. That’s huge! Allegedly mostly women. And hormone surges exacerbate it, so probably some high-female hormone is contributing. It also sometimes seems cultural or regional.
But nobody knows yet even 60 years after it was discovered. I personally suspect that aside from fats, there is a mineral relationship, either in pervasively toxic (lead) or in sub-acute chronic deficiency. Unfortunately since the AMA and related powers that be (TPTB) verrrrrry carefully refuse to do much research on this, and avoid it to the degree of not even teaching about it in medical school despite that insane estimated number of people afflicted, we have no diagnoses – hence we also have no map of who/where in order to better work toward nailing down whether regional issues (where nutrient issues can be seen in patterns) are also in play. It was named in the 1940s by the Mayo Clinic.
It is known around the world medically. But it is not taught in USA medical school. So when that doctor tells a fat woman whose ass is 2 or more sizes bigger than her top half that she is clearly just not following his (bad) diet, he’s ignorant.
Because bad food will give you a gut first or additionally. When you go bottom-wide instead of top-thick – and lipedemics are often bizarrely lean comparatively in their head/neck/hands/feet/upper torso/sometimes arms – it’s usually a sign of lipedema. When you get to the point of a woman who looks like she’s wearing stuffed british horse riding pants – the bottom’s just much bigger than the top, not just a little, hormones ‘widen the hips’ but not THIS much if healthy – or has “tree trunk legs” it’s a sign.
But because of the way lipedemics store fat they may actually have a waistline, they may take shoulder-headshot photos where they look 250# leaner, they may even be athletic and bizarrely limber and physically fit compared to someone even much lighter than they are.
When the doctor sees a very fat woman with this storage pattern and suggests we basically gut someone to prevent their ability to intake much or in some surgery forms even fully digest food, he’s ignorant. It’s not his fault. I see doctors online who have – just in the last several years – finally become aware of it, and they’re asking each other, “Well but so… so what do I tell my patient? What do I have them do? I mean are you saying there is NOTHING we can do?!”
The answer is “choose better grandparents” and “don’t let yourself get fat.” Great answer right. The docs are very frustrated. Try being the patient!
Lipedema, seriously oversimplified, but then remember we are greatly ignorant about it or it would not be a “no known cure” situation still:
In a nutshell, “there is something wrong with the fat cells.” Particularly their “membranes” or at least the way the adipose tissue functions. It is stored far away from the organs – pelvis down, occasionally upper arms maybe 30% of the people.
The fat is NOT budged by diet or exercise. (Note: I do believe the fibrous tissue supporting it, and some of the inflammation and edema, can reduce though.)
Apoptis does not always seem to happen on schedule, although this may not be true, it’s unclear as fat cells live a long time and accumulate even when they DO die on time.
The cell membranes appear faulty and the cells “leak” and/or do not have functional “respiration” for water, for toxins, and the result is that where they accumulate (which possibly by coincidence coincides with the highest marrow areas, and I mention this as the macrophages created there differ some) it’s basically “a toxic swamp.”
Ironically more fat cells are created or sent there to help deal with this and dragged into it, more fluid accumulates there to cool the massive inflammation, the fluid (edema) (which is a protein-water) increases and the protein self-builds scaffolding to support the tissue, which makes it even larger so it can hold even more fat cells and water.
Hormonal distress (puberty, pregnancy, menopause, great trauma in life) appears to greatly worsen it. The storage areas become what they call “an inflammation cascade” – a positive feedback loop where fat storage, edema creation, fibrous creation, just keep growing and in doing so they create the condition that makes them keep growing, and…
Eventually, once it reaches stage III or so, the very condition itself will spawn other conditions, such as lipo-lymphadema for example.
I have been scanning research and everything I could find online for any clues about this for many years.
One thing that seemed likely evident to me a decade or so ago is that this was what I call “twinkie fat” – it’s possible I picked up that term on the lowcarb forums eons ago – basically, that the fat was screwed up somehow, possibly due to trans-fat intake, in any case thanks to “modern” food and “junk” food.
Even 20 years ago it was clear the fat of lipedemics, in that area, was different… somehow.
Of course, having all these situations in the body does not prevent the person from – sooner or later – ALSO becoming “fat” in the “normal” way – and adding to the overall body problem, so there may be multiple things going on at once.
There is a reddit group called “what’s wrong with your cat” and I think lipedemics could have a group called “what’s wrong with your fat.”
This is just a preliminary to the next couple posts but I don’t know how familiar people here are with lipedema so I had to wax on a bit, sorry. More shortly.
Pj
