Story #192: Cellulite SOS, Ionothermie

 When you think about wearing short shorts and swimsuits this summer, a couple of things that probably come to mind if you’re a woman—how do a lose a few pounds fast, and specifically--is possible to smooth out cellulite, those bumpy layers of fat that appear and poke through the front of your thighs and back of your legs in the most unflattering way—completely ruining your look as a bathing beauty hottie! Well, you can weight train and diet and get a lot of that extra fat to smooth itself out. But sometimes that is not enough, and you still have some fluids that need to be flushed out—and there are many spa treatments such as seaweed wraps, saunas, massages with sea salts, oils,  and creams that many women have claimed to be found anecdotal success with—felt and looked slimmer, or had less cellulite afterward. Then of course, there are those massage roller treatments performed by doctors, some with even vacuum suction mechanisms—and then there is the mac-daddy of all massage cellulite removals, liposuction—extreme, dangerous, expensive and risky. So without surgery, I am always interested to find out what women are doing to smooth out the bumps, in pursuit of the perfect beach body for the summer. At the Ritz Carlton South Beach Hotel in Miami, we met up with Ana Camacho, one of the spa therapists there who was administering a treatment there to help those in need of slimming down. 

When I walked into her spa treatment room, it all looked normal and pleasant enough. There were flowers and candles. Massage beds, hot tubs, and then…and woman covered with towels and clay, hooked up to electrodes and a machine with numbers that had names of body parts flashing on it—okay…is Bride of Frankenstein 2007, or a resort spa?

My first question to Ana was right to the point.

“So, I see you’ve got some clays and electrodes and stuff hooked up to someone that is supposed to help reduce cellulite? What is this called, how does it work, and does it really work?”

Ana was a good sport and laughed. “Yes it does. It’s called ionothermie. It takes 3 products together. One is affirnaline which is slimming and toning.

She held up a little vial of liquid.

 “In combination with this anvil that has three main ingredients that has algae, ivy and guarana. So we apply these products on your skin and put you on a bed of clay. So what you want to do is improve circulation and improve fatty flow so you can get rid of the toxins that accumulate.

Keep in mind, this is not scientific—purely anecdotal, but from what I understood of the process, our willing victim agreed to have clay slathered on her, electrodes applied to her, and a machine turned on that is somehow supposed to conduct a mild current through her via the clay that activates slimming and toning creams and vials of liquids that help speed up metabolic processes and remove stubborn pockets of cellulite. But when I asked Ana how long this would take, she was very clear it would take a series of half hour treatments, in combination with diet and exercise as there are no shortcuts that don’t include the dreaded “D & E”. So while ionothermie may not be a cure for cellulite by itself, it Ana suggested for some it may be helpful as another tool if you’re trying to look your best and are doing everything else you can do to slim down that week at the spa. There are many non-surgical ways to temporarily reduce the appearance of cellulite after trimming the fat, so whose to say what will or won’t work for you if you are on a mission to find out—and of course, there is always the spray-on tan to disguise it, until you get rid of it.

 Bonnnie.

This story was taped on location at
the Ritz Carlton Resort, South Beach