Is There Surgery To Remove Cholesterol?- Are They Safe?
Most of us, especially the younger generation may have heard or read about Liposuction. Cosmetic surgery is used to remove extra fat that has built up between the muscle and the skin. It involves rupturing some of the fat cells and extracting them using various suction methods. Overall it’s a surgery that removes the excess fat, that’s in solid form. But is the same possible for cholesterol?
That comes to the common conclusion that body fat, which is mostly present in the solid state, can be removed through surgery. Unlike fat, cholesterol is found in the blood, which makes it impossible to be removed by surgery.
What Is Cholesterol?
By origin, it is a waxy, fatty-like material that is present in all of your body’s cells. Your body actually needs cholesterol to produce hormones, vitamin D, and compounds that aid in food digestion.
Cholesterol refuses to dissolve in water as fat does. It relies on molecules called lipoproteins to circulate around the body instead. These triglycerides, lipids, and fat-soluble vitamins are all transported by them throughout your body.
But overly high blood cholesterol levels can interact with other blood constituents to produce plaque. Eventually, your arteries’ inner walls get coated with this plaque and atherosclerosis is the term for this accumulation of plaque. As a result, your coronary arteries could narrow or even end up blocked, which could lead to coronary artery disease.
In short, cholesterol can’t be removed, but its levels can be reduced as most of us know. But while this is so, there is a different case that needs to be considered now that we are talking about cholesterol removal. It’s the cholesterol deposits.
When cholesterol accumulates beneath the skin, it forms cholesterol deposits, commonly referred to as xanthomas. This skin growth or cholesterol deposits is actually brought on by the accumulation of cholesterol, rather than it being cholesterol as such.
In short, removing it doesn’t account for the removal of cholesterol levels or cholesterol, but just the deposits. Keeping one’s cholesterol levels under control is an effective way to prevent deposits.
Electrodesiccation and curettage (ED&C), Excision, Cryotherapy, Laser ablation, and Topical trichloroacetic acid are some of the most popular levels of removing xanthomas aka cholesterol deposits. So, there isn’t a surgery to remove cholesterol.
What Are Some Ways To Reduce High Cholesterol Levels?
Indication to that end, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a global call for all industrially produced trans fats to be removed from the world’s food supply by the year 2023.
Other healthy alternatives to reduce cholesterol levels include increasing soluble fiber intake, quitting smoking, and eating foods high in omega-3 fatty acids. The necessary medications that are prescribed for patients with high cholesterol levels are not replaced by these measures.