Navdeep Kaur, Age 37

Overweight women and women with lipedema share a common problem — fighting the numbers on the scale.

Early signs of lipedema begin with women noticing fat developing on the legs or thighs with less focus on their midsection. Lipedema is an excessive fluid buildup seen in the hips, legs, thighs, and buttocks.

Lipedema fat can spread to the rest of the body. The lipedema fat itself is not smooth but feels like gelatin with small pea-sized nodules like foam balls in a bag. The excess fat growth on the buttocks, hips and legs gives a distorted pear shape to the body where the lower body is clearly out of proportion to the upper body.

Women struggling with being overweight can alter their lifestyle with diet and exercise to lose weight. Women with lipedema have to look at other ways to treat their condition and stop it from advancing. If left untreated, lipedema develops into later stages (III and IV) where patients may endure painful, consistent swelling and severe inflammation.

This disease affects millions of women, but many are misdiagnosed and told to simply change their lifestyle. And then keep wondering why it is not working out.

Obesity traits and lipedema share the same genetic tracers and affect the lymphatic system as weight accumulates. The most significant difference between the two is that real obesity is treatable with a healthy diet and exercise. Fat accumulation due to lipedema is unaffected by such factors and only continues to get worse.

Ayurvedic specialists like Dr. Raghav will specifically look for certain lipedema traits, such as location and composition, and treat patients according to best Ayurvedic approach.

Are you overweight or obese, or do you have lipedema?