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Why We Women Can’t Win: Liposuction And Fat Redistribution

Here’s the tweet I posted Sunday evening:

I’ve told pts this for years now>>> Liposuction Study Finds That Lost Fat Returns – http://nyti.ms/kheltN

The New York Times article reports on a liposuction study published in the April issue of the journal Obesity (full reference below).   The NY Times article uses this photo as graphic illustration

and a quote from a plastic surgeon who says he is surprised.

Dr. Felmont Eaves III, a plastic surgeon in Charlotte, N.C., and president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, said the study was “very well done,” and the results were surprising. He said he would mention it to his patients in the context of other information on liposuction.

I have told my patients for years to consider the fat cells in their body as drawers or storage bins.  If I take away some of the drawers and they continue to take in “fat” that needs to be stored, the body will put it somewhere.  If there are now fewer drawer options in the saddlebag or abdominal region, then where will it go?  Most likely the upper body, etc. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*

Belly Fat Is A Risk Factor For Dementia

One of the great fears we all have is to lose our mental ability as we grow old. No one wants to end their life with dementia (such as Alzheimer’s Disease). We all should be highly motivated to do things to avoid this tragic outcome. We already know that regular exercise is good for the mind and may reduce the risk of dementia. Recent evidence shows that the use of statin medications to lower cholesterol may help reduce dementia risk. Now we have evidence that the roll of fat around your waist may be a marker for increased dementia risk.

The University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter (February, 2010) reports on a study published in the journal Neurology that followed 1500 Swedish women for 30 years. Those with more fat around the waist were twice as likely to have dementia by age 70 compared with thinner women. A 2008 study from Kaiser Permanente that included men and women showed similar results. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at eDocAmerica*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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