Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
The treatment works just as well for women with light skin as it does for women with dark skin — skin color doesn’t make a difference in how well it works.
Causal
The treatment causes bruising and soreness at the injection site, but these side effects are usually mild and go away within a couple of weeks.
Descriptive
Wearing a sun exposure meter on the arm gives a much better idea of how much sun a worker gets than guessing based on their job title, making it a better tool to protect them from skin cancer.
Women who got the enzyme injection felt less self-conscious, embarrassed, or like they looked older because of their cellulite — and they were much happier with how their skin looked.
The safety limit for sun exposure at work is too low—many outdoor workers in Lisbon get 3–4 times more sun in a day than the current safety rule allows.
Quantitative
A special enzyme injection given three times over six weeks can noticeably smooth out deep dimples on the buttocks in women with severe cellulite, and it works much better than a fake shot.
Even among people doing the same outdoor job, some get way more sun than others—so some are much more likely to get skin cancer, depending on how they work and whether they use shade or sunscreen.
Correlational
People who work outside in the sun every day, especially sailors and gardeners, have a much higher chance of getting skin cancer than people who work indoors—even more than other outdoor jobs like paving roads.
People who work outside all day for many years, like gardeners or road workers, are much more likely to get a type of skin cancer called SCC than people who work inside, because of all the sun they’re exposed to.
Different kinds of skin cancer are caused by different kinds of sun exposure: melanoma by childhood sunburns, BCC by weekend sunbathing, and SCC by years of daily sun exposure.
People who reapply sunscreen all the time tend to get more skin cancer — probably because they stay in the sun longer, thinking they’re protected.
People who use strong sunscreen after age 25 are more likely to get skin cancer — but this is probably because they spend more time in the sun, not because the sunscreen itself causes cancer.
Being in the sun a lot over your whole life — not just on vacations — makes you much more likely to get SCC, a type of skin cancer.
Spending lots of time in the sun on vacations or weekends is more likely to cause BCC than being outside during daily routines like walking to work.
Getting badly sunburned many times before age 25 makes it much more likely for women to get any kind of skin cancer later in life.
Petrolatum works the same way on normal skin and on eczema skin that looks okay — it boosts germ fighters and barrier proteins, which may explain why it helps even when the skin doesn’t look broken.
Even though petrolatum is thought to be just a plain ointment, it seems to turn on some of the skin’s natural alarm signals like IL-6, IL-8, and IL-1β, which are involved in fighting germs and healing.
Even on skin that looks normal in people with eczema, putting on petrolatum seems to reduce the number of immune cells that cause inflammation.
Petrolatum may help thicken the outermost layer of skin and boost proteins that keep it strong and sealed, like repairing a leaky roof.
Putting petrolatum on your skin seems to turn up the production of natural germ-fighting chemicals, which might help protect against infections.
The FDA only approved this enzyme injection for the butt, but doctors often use it on the thighs too — with a weaker solution and different injection pattern.
One doctor tried giving a blood-clotting medicine before and after the injection, and in one pair of twins, the one who took it earlier had less bruising — but this is just one case, so we don’t know if it really works.
After getting the cellulite injection, most people get bruises that get less bad with each treatment, but in fair-skinned people, dark spots from bruising can last more than a year.
Taking consistent photos of the butt and thighs from specific angles before and after treatment helps doctors and patients see real changes, instead of just remembering how it looked.