Excess body weight is a well known health risk. Large accumulations of body fat contribute to cardiovascular disease and diabetes and lower one’s lifespan. Significant and sustained weight loss through a diet and exercise program is the best treatment approach and there is endless medical evidence to support the effectiveness of overall body fat reduction.
It has long been hoped that the surgical removal of some of this fat, liposuction being the easiest way to do it, would offer some similar albeit less significant health benefits. To date, there has been no medical evidence that would support this hypothesis. (hope) It was presumed that the amount of fat removed in most safe liposuction extractions was simply too small to make a difference. In addition, it has always been assumed that the fat that really matters, from a health standpoint, was visceral or largely intra-abdominal fat. Outer or subcutaneous fat only mattered because it contributed to making undesired body rolls and bulges.
A recent study given at the 2011 annual American Society of Plastic Surgeons meeting in Denver presented some interesting findings on potential health benefits from liposuction surgery. In over 300 hundred patients who had either liposuction, a tummy tuck or both combined, blood levels of triglycerides, cholesterol and white blood cells were done both before and after surgery. Triglyceride levels in patients with normal levels before surgery were unchanged. However, in patients with elevated triglyceride levels before surgery (defined as greater than 150 mg/dl), they showed a triglyceride level reduction of over 40 percent. Such significant level reductions are usually associated with drug therapies which often are even this good. White blood cell counts, viewed as an indicator of chronic inflammation and disease inducer, dropped an average of 10 percent.
Does this mean that liposuction is good for your overall health? That is a stretch at this point but this liposuction study clearly shows blood chemistry changes that reduce certain disease risk factors. Much more work needs to be done but it does provide some proof that subcutaneous fat may have a greater metabolic role to play than previously thought. It is not just an idle depot of excess fat whose only role is as a creator of undesired rolls and bulges. At the least it may be comforting to know there may be some benefit, small as it may turn out to be, that a shortcut approach to fat reduction with liposuction may also be good for you.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana