Can Removing Abdominal Fat Fight Disease?

May 13, 2004 -- Ginny Boddie has struggled with her weight since college, but she'd always considered herself active and healthy. Two years ago, all that changed.

"I was just extremely fatigued and I remember my brother saying some of the symptoms I was feeling were the same that he had when he became a diabetic at the same age," said Boddie, now 50. "And I was worried about it."

Blood sugar tests confirmed what Boddie, who lives in Weymouth, Mass., had feared.

"I stood over that machine praying that it was going to be within normal limits - and so I knew when I saw it I was in trouble," Boddie said. "I knew that it was not a good thing."

Like 15 million other Americans, Boddie had become an adult-onset diabetic, at risk for complications ranging from heart disease to blindness. But doctors tried something that Boddie says changed her life, and got her diabetes under control.

They surgically removed some of her abdominal fat.

Danger of Abdominal Fat

Doctors have long known that people who are overweight, like Boddie, are at increased risk for diabetes. But recently, they have learned that fat in the abdomen may be particularly dangerous.

"We know that when patients put on that type of fat, the abdominal fat, they tend to run into problems with blood sugar control and diabetes," said Justin Maykel, a chief resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

When a CAT scan was done on Boddie, doctors were able to actually measure the abdominal fat nestled next to her internal organs. Doctors think this "internal" fat releases chemicals that contribute to diseases including diabetes, even heart disease and stroke.

So doctors offered Boddie a unique opportunity. They asked her to be the first patient in the United States to have part of her abdominal fat removed surgically, in the hope of keeping her healthy longer.

A Life-Changing Removal

Though she understood the risks, she accepted.