Liposuction and Your Heart

Liposuction is one of the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures performed around the world. While it has recently been reported that abdominal liposuction can trigger an increase in visceral fat, the fat that is around organs, especially the liver, this can be compensated for. Liposuction removes only subcutaneous fat, but visceral fat, is significantly more dangerous than subcutaneous fat. Visceral fat has been correlated with heart disease. However, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism has reported that the increase of visceral fat can be prevented with exercise!

The study that provided the evidence for this included 36 women who had low volume liposuction performed for abdominal fat. Half of the women were put on an exercise program after healing, and half were not. The results were that in 6 months the women who had not exercised had a full 10% increase in visceral fat. This is important because it is believed that visceral fat can contribute to heart disease. Now we know that not only should patients work out to achieve a reasonable weight before liposuction procedures, but they should certainly continue to work out after as well, not only to keep fat off, but to protect their hearts.

In a way, this is conventional wisdom. We all know by now that doing a thirty minute cardio work out at least three times a week helps to prevent heart disease. The new information is the theory of just why liposuction might contribute to an increase in visceral fat. Researchers suspect this has to do with total energy expenditure. When adipose fat may well contain a feedback mechanism to the body’s metabolism. If the body is tricked into believing it does not have enough of an energy reserve, it may be triggered into creating that reserve by increasing visceral fat. The only way to lose visceral fat is with exercise!  Burning fat requires extra oxygen.  By providing the body with more oxygen, aerobic cardio exercise forces the body to burn fat rather than recently digested carbohydrates for energy. Oh and by the way, it turns out eating lots of greens and foods with omega-3 fatty acids (such as salmon) help to reduce visceral fat too. These are very good for your heart.

If you are considering liposuction at Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center, please think about adding a little aerobic activity to you daily routine. It really doesn’t take much and makes a world of difference. Health and good looks are definitely a winning combination!

Dr. Branman

Call the front desk for your consultation with me (501) 227-0707