Health
'Six-pack surgery' gaining popularity among men, say plastic surgeons
Move over, “Dad bod” — more men are seeking “six-pack abs” with the help of a surgical procedure called high-definition liposuction, according to plastic surgeons.
This type of “ab-etching” technique is gaining popularity among men who can’t get rid of stubborn belly fat with exercise alone, according to members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
The method targets removal of stubborn fat much like traditional liposuction, but it also creates defined lines across the stomach muscles to create the illusion of “chiseled” abdominals.
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What is high-definition liposuction?
Dr. Josef Hadeed, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon at the Hadeed Plastic Surgery practice in Beverly Hills, California, and Miami, Florida, described the procedure during an interview with Fox News Digital.
“It is more like creating that six-pack and creating the ‘V lines,’ and giving somebody that more athletic, toned physique that traditional liposuction can’t really achieve,” he said.
More men are seeking “six-pack abs” with the help of a surgical procedure called high-definition liposuction, according to plastic surgeons. (iStock)
Traditional liposuction focuses on removing fat, volume and bulk, but doesn’t address the specifics of the “underlying anatomy,” according to the surgeon.
High-definition liposuction is more detailed, Hadeed said.
“We remove a little more fat from that vertical line above the belly button, and also those horizontal lines above the belly button,” he said.
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“We also remove a little more fat in those areas to create the illusion or appearance of somebody having a six-pack.”
In some cases, fat is redistributed to other areas to help create a bulkier, more muscular abdominal appearance, the surgeon added.
A growing trend
There has been an uptick in men undergoing this liposuction procedure, according to members of the ASPS.
“I’m definitely seeing an increase in high-definition liposuction requests for men,” ASPS member Dr. Joubin Gabbay, MD, the medical director at Gabbay Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills, California, told Fox News Digital.
“It is more like creating that six-pack and creating the ‘V lines,’ and giving somebody that more athletic, toned physique that traditional liposuction can’t really achieve,” a plastic surgeon said. (iStock)
“They are coming in with specific requests for a defined, chiseled contour.”
Dr. Finny George, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon and partner at New York Plastic Surgical Group, a division of Long Island Plastic Surgical Group, has also seen more male patients looking to improve their muscle definition.
“It is becoming more socially acceptable for men to have plastic surgery.”
“There is definitely a growing desire among men [for] alternate means of achieving an athletic physique for two main reasons,” George told Fox News Digital.
“First, it is becoming more socially acceptable for men to have plastic surgery — and second, many have already tried and failed with conventional diet and exercise,” she added.
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High-definition liposuction isn’t the only procedure growing in popularity among men.
There has been a 207% rise in total cosmetic procedures among males since 2019, according to the 2022 ASPS report.
One reason may be that men are looking for a more youthful appearance to “maintain career vitality,” the report said.
This type of “ab-etching” technique is gaining popularity among men who can’t get rid of stubborn belly fat with exercise alone, according to members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. (iStock)
Social media influencers and male celebrities have also created an open dialogue about male cosmetic surgery, making it more acceptable for men to seek such enhancement treatments, the ASPS also noted.
“It actually has been very common in Brazil and South America for quite some time now, and it’s slowly been migrating to the United States,” Hadeed told Fox News Digital.
What to know before seeking surgery
If an individual is considering undergoing high-definition liposuction, they should examine their reasons for doing so, said Hadeed.
“They should do it for themselves, not because their spouse or partner is pressuring them to do it,” he advised.
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When a person is seeking those “perfect six-pack abs,” Hadeed said, the surgeon will typically look at the individual’s lifestyle behaviors, such as diet and exercise.
For example, if someone is sedentary and eats fast food every day, “maybe this isn’t for you,” according to the doctor.
It is important to research the credentials of the plastic surgeon who will perform the procedure and make sure they are certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, an expert advised. (iStock)
Patients should have realistic expectations of what can be achieved rather than trying to look like a certain fitness model or social media influencer, Hadeed cautioned.
In some situations, he said, “we have to lower the expectations a little bit and say, ‘I can’t make you look like this other person who’s completely ripped and shredded, but I can help you look like a more refined version of yourself.’”
“Having elective surgery is a very major decision, and not something that people should take lightly.”
If the individual were to gain or lose a significant amount of weight after the surgery, that could affect the results, leading to the need for a revision or touch-up, Hadeed said — which is why he screens his patients to identify their lifestyle habits and make sure they can maintain the results.
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Gabbay also emphasized the importance of following a good regimen to maintain the benefits of the surgery.
“I think the treatment is certainly effective at helping many achieve the six-pack look, but it requires work and maintenance to maintain,” he told Fox News Digital.
Experts emphasized the importance of following a good regimen to maintain the benefits of the surgery. (iStock)
“It is important to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle and avoid major weight fluctuations after the procedure,” he went on.
“Unintended weight gain after a high-definition procedure can exaggerate the look of the six-pack, making it look a little less natural.”
Potential risks
Hadeed, who also serves as chair of the Patient Safety Committee for the ASPS, said it is important for patients to understand the risks involved with the procedure.
“Having elective surgery is a very major decision, and not something that people should take lightly,” he said.
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Hadeed agreed that while the surgery is typically safe, there are risks involved.
“In particular, there could be skin necrosis, where some of the skin dies,” he warned. “There could also be fat necrosis, where some of the fatty tissue that’s left behind dies.”
“It is important to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle and avoid major weight fluctuations after the procedure,” a doctor advised. (iStock)
Other potential complications may include blood clots and intestinal perforation.
It is also important to research the credentials of the plastic surgeon who will perform the procedure and make sure they are certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, Hadeed said.
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The doctor warned, “There are a lot of physicians out there who are not plastic surgeons who are doing these procedures.”
Deaths from bombs and other traumatic injuries during the first nine months of the war in Gaza may have been underestimated by more than 40 percent, according to a new analysis published in The Lancet.
The peer-reviewed statistical analysis, led by epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, used modeling in an effort to provide an objective third-party estimate of casualties. The United Nations has relied on the figure from the Hamas-led Ministry of Health, which it says has been largely accurate, but which Israel criticizes as inflated.
But the new analysis suggests the Hamas health ministry tally is a significant undercount. The researchers concluded that the death toll from Israel’s aerial bombardment and military ground operation in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024 was about 64,300, rather than the 37,900 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The estimate in the analysis corresponds to 2.9 percent of Gaza’s prewar population having been killed by traumatic injury, or one in 35 inhabitants. The analysis did not account for other war-related casualties such as deaths from malnutrition, water-borne illness or the breakdown of the health system as the conflict progressed.
The study found that 59 percent of the dead were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not establish what share of the reported dead were combatants.
Mike Spagat, an expert on calculating casualties of war who was not involved in this research, said the new analysis convinced him that Gaza casualties were underestimated.
“This is a good piece of evidence that the real number is higher, probably substantially higher, than the Ministry of Health’s official numbers, higher than I had been thinking over the last few months,” said Dr. Spagat, who is a professor at Royal Holloway College at the University of London.
But the presentation of precise figures, such as a 41 percent underreported mortality, is less useful, he said, since the analysis actually shows the real total could be less than, or substantially more. “Quantitatively, it’s a lot more uncertain than I think comes out in the paper,” Dr. Spagat said.
The researchers said their estimate of 64,260 deaths from traumatic injury has a “confidence interval” between 55,298 and 78,525, which means the actual number of casualties is likely in that range.
If the estimated level of underreporting of deaths through June 2024 is extrapolated out to October 2024, the total Gazan casualty figure in the first year of the war would exceed 70,000.
“There is an importance to war injury deaths, because it speaks to the question of whether the campaign is proportional, whether it is, in fact, the case that sufficient provisions are made to to avoid civilian casualties,” said Francesco Checchi, an epidemiologist with an expertise in conflict and humanitarian crises and a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who was an author on the study. “I do think memorializing is important. There is inherent value in just trying to come up with the right number.”
The analysis uses a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis, which has been used to estimate casualties in other conflicts, including civil wars in Colombia and Sudan.
For Gaza, the researchers drew on three lists: The first is a register maintained by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which mainly comprises the dead in hospital morgues and estimates of the number of unrecovered people buried in rubble. The second is deaths reported by family or community members through an online survey form the ministry established on Jan. 1, 2024, when the prewar death registration system had broken down. It asked Palestinians inside and outside Gaza to provide names, ages, national ID number and location of death for casualties. The third source was obituaries of people who died from injuries that were published on social media, which may not include all of the same biographical details and which the researchers compiled by hand.
The researchers analyzed these sources to look for individuals who appear on multiple lists of those killed. A high level of overlap would have suggested that few deaths were uncounted; the low amount they found suggested the opposite. The researchers used models to calculate the probability of each individual appearing on any of the three lists.
“Models enable us to actually estimate the number of people who have not been listed at all,” Dr. Checchi said. That, combined with the listed number, gave the analysts their total.
Patrick Ball, director of research at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, and a statistician who has conducted similar estimates of violent deaths in conflicts in other regions, said the study was strong and well reasoned. But he cautioned that the authors may have underestimated the amount of uncertainty caused by the ongoing conflict.
The authors used different variations of mathematical models in their calculations, but Dr. Ball said that rather than presenting a single figure — 64,260 deaths — as the estimate, it may have been more appropriate to present the number of deaths as a range from 47,457 to 88,332 deaths, a span that encompasses all of the estimates produced by modeling the overlap among the three lists.
“It’s really hard to do this kind of thing in the middle of a conflict,” Dr. Ball said. “It takes time, and it takes access. I think you could say the range is larger, and that would be plausible.”
While Gaza had a strong death registration process before the war, it now has only limited function after the destruction of much of the health system. Deaths are uncounted when whole families are killed simultaneously, leaving no one to report, or when an unknown number of people die in the collapse of a large building; Gazans are increasingly buried near their homes without passing through a morgue, Dr. Checchi said.
The authors of the study acknowledged that some of those assumed dead may in fact be missing, most likely taken as prisoners in Israel.
Roni Caryn Rabin and Lauren Leatherby contributed reporting.
Dementia cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2060, with an estimated one million people diagnosed per year, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins University and other institutions.
Researchers found that Americans’ risk of developing dementia after age 55 is 42%, double the risk that has been identified in prior studies, a press release stated.
For those who reach 75 years of age, the lifetime risk exceeds 50%, the study found.
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Women face a 48% average risk and men have a 35% risk, with the discrepancy attributed to women living longer than men.
Dementia cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2060, with an estimated one million people diagnosed per year. (iStock)
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Medicine on Jan. 13, analyzed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS), which has tracked the cognitive and vascular health of nearly 16,000 adults since 1987.
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“Our study results forecast a dramatic rise in the burden from dementia in the United States over the coming decades, with one in two Americans expected to experience cognitive difficulties after age 55,” said study senior investigator and epidemiologist Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, who serves as the founding director of the Optimal Aging Institute at NYU Langone, in the release.
Understanding risk factors
“One of the main reasons for the increase is that great medicine and tecnological advances are keeping us alive longer and age is a risk factor for dementia,” Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News senior medical analyst, told Fox News Digital.
“Obesity is associated with inflammation, diabetes and high blood pressure, which are all independent risk factors for dementia.”
In addition to aging, other risk factors include genetics, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, unhealthy diets of ultraprocessed foods, sedentary lifestyles and mental health disorders, the release said.
“We have an obesity epidemic with over 45% adults obese in the U.S.,” Siegel noted. “Obesity is associated with inflammation, diabetes and high blood pressure, which are all independent risk factors for dementia.”
“And as an unhealthy population, we also have more heart disease, and atrial fibrillation is a risk factor for cognitive decline,” he added.
Dementia risk was found to be higher among people who have a variant of the APOE4 gene, which has been linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Black adults also have a higher risk.
Researchers found that Americans’ risk of developing dementia after age 55 is 42%, double the risk that has been identified in prior studies. (iStock)
Research has shown that the same interventions used to prevent heart disease risk could also prevent or slow down dementia, the study suggested.
“The pending population boom in dementia cases poses significant challenges for health policymakers in particular, who must refocus their efforts on strategies to minimize the severity of dementia cases, as well as plans to provide more health care services for those with dementia,” said Coresh.
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What needs to change?
Professor Adrian Owen, PhD, neuroscientist and chief scientific officer at Creyos, a Canada-based company that specializes in cognitive assessment and brain health, referred to the increase in dementia cases as a “tidal wave.”
“This new study’s anticipated surge in dementia cases underscores the urgent need for early and accurate detection,” he told Fox News Digital.
“By catching issues early, we give people the power to make lifestyle adjustments, seek available treatments and plan their futures with clarity.”
“By identifying cognitive decline at its earliest stages, we have an opportunity to intervene before patients and families bear the full weight of the disease.”
Owen recommends conducting regular cognitive assessments as part of routine check-ups to proactively identify early signs of cognitive decline.
“By catching issues early, we give people the power to make lifestyle adjustments, seek available treatments and plan their futures with clarity,” he said.
“By identifying cognitive decline at its earliest stages, we have an opportunity to intervene before patients and families bear the full weight of the disease.” (iStock)
Maria C. Carrillo, PhD, chief science officer and medical affairs lead for the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, said there is an “urgent need” to address the global crisis of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
To help keep the aging brain healthy, the Alzheimer’s Association published its report 10 Healthy Habits for Your Brain. Some of the tips are listed below.
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– Participate in regular physical activity.
– Learn new things throughout your life and engage your brain.
– Get proper nutrition — prioritize vegetables and leaner meats/proteins, along with foods that are less processed and lower in fat.
– Avoid head injury (protect your head).
– Have a healthy heart and cardiovascular system — control blood pressure, avoid diabetes or treat it if you have it, manage your weight and don’t smoke.
Research has shown that the same interventions used to prevent heart disease risk could also prevent or slow down dementia. (iStock)
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for additional comment.
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