Learn ways to manage lipedema and lipo-lymphedema with compression garments for maximum weight loss, swelling reduction and management of painful fat, puffy, swollen legs, knees, abdomens, arms and butts.
This video is PART 2 of my Lipedema Management Video Series
Daily Lipedema Management is a crucial factor for keeping this unique fat disorder under control.
1. Dry Skin Brushing is key to moving the swelling of your body – this motivates your lymphatic flow
2. Homeopathy for Lymph Flow Promotion and Swelling Reduction is Key
https://www.npscript.com/nhr/lymph-st…
(new patient access code 6010)
3. Compression Therapy
Juzo Foot Wrap
https://vo310.infusionsoft.com/app/ma…
Juzo Compression Calf Wrap:
https://vo310.infusionsoft.com/app/ma…
Juzo Compression Wrap Knee
https://vo310.infusionsoft.com/app/ma…
Juzo Thigh High
https://vo310.infusionsoft.com/app/ma…
Sign up for Dr. Melissa’s FREE Lipedema Email Course
https://www.naturalhealthresources.com…
If you want to watch my Lymphatic Drainage and Swelling Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…
If you are into health and wellness and want to binge watch some of my more popular videos — here they are….
#1 Anti-Aging Beauty Secret:
https://youtu.be/OzTyYWM1fhw
Uncommon Symptoms of Thyroid Problems:
https://youtu.be/hqIZy2ASq-Q
Manual Lymph Drainage for Sinus Congestion, Colds & Flu: https://youtu.be/zLB6n_R-dus
Foods to Eat to Reduce Inflammation:
https://youtu.be/NvBlAqX-SJA
Shrink Fibroids in the Breast
https://youtu.be/JP_Kye3_Zrc
Prostate Health Tips
https://youtu.be/lYZogLXHy_g
How to Shop Healthy At Aldi:
https://youtu.be/4fO_Hs2csgY
The Books that Changed My Life Personally & Professionally
https://youtu.be/I1NhCwS5zao
TRANSCRIPTION
In this video we are going to talk about some ways to manage lipedema or lipo-lymphedema – including the use of compression wraps or garments. Lipedema or lipo-lymphedema is a condition, a fat disorder that causes additional swelling and lymphatic related fluid retention particularly in the lower abdomen and the legs. In today’s video I want to answer several questions about to manage this on your own. The reality is lipedema or lipo-lymphedema is a permanent condition. It is genetic and if it is not managed daily with an assortment of protocols that I will be providing here.
I also have an email course, if you want to sign up for that: www.naturalhealthresources.com/lipedema/course.html
I want to introduce you to compression therapy, Lipedema compression leggings, and compression wraps. Compression is one of the most important aspects of managing lipedema or lipo-lymphedema.
I’ve been doing this for over 12 years now, I’ve worked with over 100,000 patients in clinical settings, inpatient and outpatient settings, and virtually to help manage your swelling at home. One of the things that I find is that when you are not working with a lymphatic therapist or specialist in lymphedema disorders is your home care
I want to break down how to use compression therapy, what type of compression therapy tends to work best. Every case is unique and different but in general I want to impart some information that you can use to begin your daily treatment protocol at home.
You will need to gather some materials. There are some products listed below that I love and recommend but really, this is about giving you a toolbox of resources to begin to manage the swelling, fibrotic tissue that usually accompanies lipedema or lipo-lymphedema.
Dry Brushing
The first thing that you will want to gather is a dry skin bristle brush. These are easy to find at Walmart, Target, drug stores, health food stores, online at Amazon.com. You want a natural, vegetable bristle brush, not a synthetic bristle brush. And not a loofa, you want a body brush. You also want to get one with a handle to access hard-to-reach areas like your back.
Homeopathy
Homeopathy is a big part of my lymphedema management practice. The formula that I find the most helpful is a product called Lymph Stim. This is a professional grade product, you can not find this over the counter, or on Amazon. You can get it from my online store: https://www.npscript.com/nhr/lymph-stim-liquescence/PF0273PAR
(new patient access code 6010) All of my new patients who are purchasing this online, you need to enter a patient code, it’s standard for everybody, 6010. Just enter that code and you can get right in.
Lymph Stim is a homeopathic formula that motivated the lymphatics and gets the fluid moving, starts to break up and decongest the fibrotic tissue and help your cells release toxins and fluid that they are holding onto.
Lipedema Compression Leggings – Compression Therapy
The other thing that is absolutely essential is compression therapy. Compression therapy puts pressure on the skin and the extremity that is filled with fluid and not moving. We call this stasis, or fluid stasis. We are going to compress and we are going to utilize the compression from the lower space up to the top space to actually move the fluid up the body. This is impactful for ankles, knees, calves, thight, butt and abdomen. It will also be impactful for the panis. This is the lower abdomen that can sometimes hang to the mid-thigh area or lower. There is some compression therapy that we can utilize for the abdomen and panis. Compression is one of the most impactful ways on top of laser therapy to break up fibrotic tissue. With lipedema or lipo-lymphedema a lot of times the legs will have a curvy, marshmallow type, bumpy look to them.
There are several types of compression garments. The lower level that I don’t use in a lipedema or lipo-lymphedema case are compression stockings, compression knee highs or thigh highs. I don’t get into that because of the lipedema and the marshmallow type curving with possible pockets of fluid and maybe even some wounds on the skin.
20 to 60 is what I like to see for lipedema compression leggings. That’s where we get into the velcro wrapping. First I want to share with you, you would normally buy a velcro wrap and you’ll be getting a stocking. There are a lot of different types of stockings. The stockings will give you a 20-30 type compression alone. A lot of times the threading of the garment has silver in it which is great for any type of wound care that you are managing, open wounds and even weeping for people who have vascular insufficiency, edema and eczema related to the open wounds, getting dermal damage from a wound perspective. This is the beginning, you’ll actually be slipping this on your leg and then you’ll be wrapping on top of that. https://konkan.me/
There’s really to core layers to compression therapy. Your stocking net or stocking that has some compression, some sort of silver banding or antimicrobial aspect that you directly put your leg into, in the case of a leg garment. You put it on your leg like a stocking and it covers the feet. Feet may not be involved but we want the feet covered so that we don’t flush fluid into the feet. This type of compression is very impactful for the lower grade levels of lipedema or lipo-lymphedema.
If you are in a greater situation where you feel you may be holding 60, 80 or 100 pounds in a limb or even in the lower trunk area or in the panis region then we are going to have an additional layer where we will have a bandaging wrap, where it’s a kind of foam wrapping. There’s a lot of different foam pieces. I use foam wedges to kind of contour the leg. For the most part with lipedema or lipo-lymphedema, the legs mirror each other but sometimes one leg will hold more fluid in the other. It’s not uncommon for us to use custom wraps for one leg and use a standard wrap for the other.
I use compression wedges with a particular type of foam to continue this type of contour shape. What that does is it allows me to get away from that type of marshmallow shaped rounding and I use the foam to push everything forward and up. The foam is great for minimizing the fibrotic tissue too.
The second layer, if we are not doing any kind of foam wraps is a compression wrap. There are many different types of wraps out there. There’s velcro, it’s very thick. These give the type of resting compression that you are looking for. You may have heard the term, resting compression. That’s simply in a static state. So literally, having your leg in the wrap, doing nothing, no muscle movement. You are going to get the compression. So folks that are bed bound or disabled because of the lymphedema, they are going to automatically get compression just by wearing the garment. And then on top of that in some cases I may use bolstering and other larger wedges to actually enhance the compression on one side or the other.
In working state we can get up to 60 parts of compression. We usually see a gauge of 20 to 60mm and this is basically a measurement of compression, force and pressure. So movement inside the compression garment is constantly pressing and forcing fluid up which is one of the reasons that we say compression is great especially if you are mobile, exercising, active and maybe going to work.
Wearing lipedema compression leggings throughout the day will be helpful for continuing to move the fluid up the body. And then also, resting you still get benefit from the compression garment. One of the most impactful things that compression wrapping does is it keeps the state contained. Why this is so important with lipedema or lipo-lymphedema is, it is the nature of swelling by the degree of the lymph fluid retention and the fat cell enhanced fluid containment, we actually need to contain the fluid significantly. So by compressing we stop the progression of the state. And then once we stop it, by compressing we can start to get into our decongestive therapies. That’s what we call it as Lymphatic therapists, we are doing decongestive therapy where we are therapeutically compressing and then we are pushing the fluid up, we are starting to manage wounds, there’s wound care involved. That’s going to be another specific course that I provide.
Wound care is important and will minimize your cellulitis and septic state and minimize the diabetic and venous wounds. What we find is that by compressing, we are minimizing the expansion of the limb or the abdomen and we are now starting to manage the tissue and texture changes of that limb, sometimes the sides or lower flanks, the upper butt, they get really hard and red.
The redness starts to go away as we get better circulation, we see enhanced lymphatic flow. Compression is really the only way to go with that. I’ll provide some link down below to some of the brands and products that I use. I’m a huge proponent of compression therapy. If you have the commitment level to do anything to get out of your current state compression wraps will have a positive impact. If you are also dealing with osteoarthritis of you ankles, knees and hips, compressing from you foot all the way up to your thigh will alleviate the fluid that is causing a lot of the joint related pain. What I find most of my cases with lipedema or lipo-lymphedema, they have intense, excruciating pain. That goes away.
Now, it doesn’t go away immediately and it will be painful and uncomfortable being compressed but if you can manage through that pain, and I have some options as well for pain management, then you can move the fluid up the body and start to compress so we get past that nerve related pain. Once we get past that pain, now the sky’s the limit in terms of what kinds of treatments we do. That’s when I start to engage wedging and the different types of internal binding and compression therapy on top of the static state compression wrap. I want you to enjoy life and not feel like this condition is a life sentence. I hope this has been impactful, empowering and educational.
