subject: Is Liposuction Actually Ever Good For Your Health? [print this page] It seems like most people in the United States wouldn't mind losing a few pounds. The nation boasts impressively high overweight and obese levels, while retaining almost impossible skinniness as its aesthetic ideal.
Of course, losing weight can be hard, as many people have found. Many people hoping for an easier way think of liposuction (also known as lipoplasty and suction lipectomy). This surgery permanently removes fat from specific areas of a person's body. During the surgery, the surgeon uses a special tool called a cannula to break up and vacuum out the offending fat.
Given that we're always told about the health benefits of losing weight, some people wonder if getting a lipoplasty could be the easy ticket to both a better appearance and improved health. Unfortunately, the answer is typically no. A lipectomy cannot usually remove enough fat to make a significant difference in a person's health. In most circumstances, it can't remove enough belly fat to make a significant difference in one's joint health, and it can't remove enough fat to significantly alter one's metabolism or improve disorders like diabetes.
However, liposuction breast reductions are one of the few exceptions to the general rule that lipoplasty is a surgery with exclusively cosmetic benefits. This surgery can in fact sometimes produce results that medical doctors regard as beneficial.
Having overly large and heavy breasts can sometimes cause health issues. The constant weight and strain of holding the breasts up can cause neck, shoulder and upper back pain and can affect the curvature of the spine. Additionally, the effort of supporting the breasts can cause frequent tension headaches. If the breasts are large enough to be constantly rubbing against each other or the skin below the breasts, this can sometimes cause skin irritation. In some cases, yeast infections have actually developed below or between the breasts.
More troubling to some is the idea that having overly large breasts could interfere with cancer detection. Some doctors allege that having one's breasts be too large could make it more difficult to find potential problems, whether through mammograms or self breast examinations.
Because the breasts are made almost exclusively out of fat, lipoplasties are uniquely well-suited to reducing their size. Some doctors say that they can often remove up to nearly 50% of the breast's mass. This change in weight can help to alleviate joint problems and headaches. Opinion is a little more divided on the subject of cancer detection, given that the surgery could leave behind some amount of scarring, which could interfere with detection itself.
