Issue Date: December 18, 2005
Can liposuction help reduce heart disease risk?
I eat right, exercise regularly and am slender -- except for my big belly. It worries me because I know abdominal fat is linked to heart disease. If I get liposuction on my belly, will it lower my risk of heart disease?
Jane Harvey, Weston, Fla.
It stands to reason that if losing weight improves heart health, then how you lose the weight shouldn't matter, right? It's a good question. Some folks in medicine have even wondered whether or not surgery might help.
As it turns out, one of my former professors has been at the forefront of this discussion. Samuel Klein, now a professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, led research to address the issue. Findings were published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" in June 2004. Researchers evaluated 15 obese women both before and 10 to 12 weeks after abdominal liposuction. In addition to being obese, seven of the women had type 2 diabetes.
The study found that liposuction effectively reduced the amount of "belly fat" in the women. On average, each lost about 20 pounds from the procedure. But the researchers also found that, in spite of the significant amount of fat removed from the abdominal area, none of the risk factors for heart disease was significantly affected.
So, there you have it. This doesn't mean liposuction is a bad procedure. It does improve cosmetic appearance, and the emotional lift from this helps some patients to reinforce good behaviors (proper nutrition, regular physical activity). But what this study indicates is that those who have fat surgically removed shouldn't count on improving their risk factors for heart disease. When it comes to good heart health, eating right and exercising regularly still are required.
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