Will washing away blood lipids make your body healthy?

When the machine starts, the garbage in the blood is separated out. In recent years, this kind of lipid-lowering therapy, which extracts blood for certain treatment and then returns it to the body to remove blood garbage, has been very popular. It can remove excess "fat" in the human body in a short period of time, which makes many people excited. Many people think: "There is no need to exercise, and you can eat as much as you want. The excess blood lipids are washed away at once, which can prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases." Even some obese young people want to remove excess fat in their bodies through "blood washing." However, can excess blood lipids really be "cleaned"? Will the body be healthy if the blood lipids are washed away?

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What is lipid washing?

Blood lipid washing originated in the 1980s. Its main treatment targets abroad are patients with high blood viscosity and high blood lipids, especially those with severe familial hyperlipidemia (mainly for rare diseases, such as familial homozygous hypercholesterolemia), and patients within 48 hours of cerebral infarction. In addition, it has a certain effect on kidney transplant rejection, some immune system diseases, liver failure, etc.

The full name of the "blood washing" therapy is heparin-induced low-density lipoprotein precipitation (HELP). Its working principle is to guide the patient's blood to an extracorporeal circulation instrument, and then adsorb the fat in the blood, mainly the low-density lipoprotein in the plasma, into a certain material, and then return the "cleaned" blood to the body, thereby achieving the purpose of lowering blood lipids.

Although the "blood washing" therapy can quickly reduce the content of low-density lipoprotein and has a certain effect on lowering blood lipids and cholesterol, its effect on lowering blood lipids can generally only last for about two weeks, and the original value may return to normal after 10 to 14 days. In addition, since hyperlipidemia is a chronic metabolic disease, the production of blood lipids is constantly repeated. It is difficult to achieve success overnight by relying on one or two "blood washings" to improve the poor metabolic condition. If you still eat and drink a lot after "washing" and do not strengthen exercise, then it is impossible to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases such as arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Moreover, this method removes blood lipids in the blood and has no effect on the flesh growing in other parts of the body.

Blood washing cannot reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease

The ultimate goal of lipid-lowering is to effectively control and improve blood lipid levels, thereby reducing the incidence of coronary heart disease and the risk of death. Currently, a large number of studies have shown that statins can effectively achieve the purpose of lipid-lowering. In addition, taking statins can also prevent the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. However, blood washing therapy cannot reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events, and its effect is only short-term, unlike drugs that can play a stable lipid-lowering role.

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Blood washing carries risks

The cholesterol in human blood is divided into high-density and low-density. Among them, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol will have a direct impact on the conversion of some compounds with important physiological functions, thereby preventing vascular sclerosis. Therefore, the more high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, the lower the risk of coronary heart disease; while too much low-density lipoprotein cholesterol will be detrimental to health. In the process of "blood washing", because the blood washing therapy is carried out by a blood lipid separator, some blood lipid separators cannot distinguish between "good" and "bad" cholesterol. Therefore, while removing "bad" low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and fibrinogen, it may also "filter" out high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and immunoglobulins that are beneficial to the body and can prevent cardiovascular events such as coronary heart disease, causing unnecessary health damage to patients.

Secondly, blood itself is a closed system. Blood washing therapy requires the plasma to be drawn out of the body. During the operation, there are risks such as bleeding infection, acid-base imbalance, and embolism. There is also the possibility of loss of immune substances that are beneficial to the body.

Moreover, lowering blood lipids with drugs is a slow and steady process, while blood washing therapy suddenly lowers blood lipids in a short period of time. This sudden "weight reduction" may make the body uncomfortable and induce more problems.

Therefore, "blood washing" is a very risky operation. It is not worth it to make such a big fuss just to lose weight.

Adjusting the diet structure and adopting a healthy lifestyle are the cornerstones of controlling dyslipidemia. We should strengthen the management of diet and life, reasonably match nutritious meals, and do appropriate physical exercise. Many people cannot control their blood lipids, mainly because they do not pay attention to their daily lives. As long as they have a healthy lifestyle, proper diet management, adherence to medication, and regular testing, blood lipids can actually be controlled.

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Written by: Lao Ke Kai Brain Hole

Produced by: Science Popularization China-Creation Cultivation Program