Weight Loss Surgery Can Improve Cholesterol Levels in Young Boys

Preliminary findings from a new study suggest that weight loss surgery could increase levels of good cholesterol in obese boys and decrease their risk of heart disease.

The weight loss surgery also increases the protective qualities of HDL cholesterol. HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, is often referred to as “good cholesterol.”

Dr. Amy Shah, an author of the study and an endocrinologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, stated that the surgery may change how HDL cholesterol works in adolescent boys. It was already known that weight loss surgery could improve cholesterol levels, but these findings on the function of HDL cholesterol were new to Dr. Shah and her team.

The study included 10 teenaged boys with an average age of 17. All were considered severely obese and had an average weight of 367 pounds. Nine out of the 10 boys were Caucasian.

The boys all had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy, a type of weight loss surgery that decreases the size of the stomach to improve the body’s ability to lose weight.

The researchers followed up with the boys one year after surgery. They each lost an average of 111 pounds, and their BMI (Body Mass Index) dropped by 32 percent. BMI measures the ratio between a person’s weight and height.

Additionally, the boys’ levels of HDL had increased by 23 percent since surgery. Their HDL also showed an increased ability to remove cholesterol from the arteries. Perhaps most significantly, the boys’ HDL levels showed a decreased inclination to trigger inflammation. The researchers reported that HDL actually become more anti-inflammatory after the surgery.

Dr. Shah said that though the boys were still considered obese one year after surgery, their metabolic health had improved, in part due to the changes in their HDL.

Dr. Shah admits that the results of the study are limited due to the small size of the study and their focus on only male participants, but she plans to use the results as a starting point for further research. Dr. Shah plans to expand the research to include female participants as well, and to start the follow-up observations sooner than one year after surgery. Dr. Shah and her team also hope to compare their findings to other types of weight loss surgeries.

The results of this study were recently presented at an American Heart Association meeting, and have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.