Another weight loss solution is coming down the pike. A new medical implant, a gastric pacemaker, can be implanted in the stomach and acting as stomach nerves, signal to the brain a premature feeling of fullness. Popular Science explains just how it works:
The device, made by Mountain View, Calif.-based IntraPace, will be implanted in the first commercial patients later this week after trials showed fairly impressive results: 65 patients lost an average of 22 percent of their body weights after one year. Some patients shed as much as 38 percent of their poundage.
Abiliti, as the device is commercially called, is implanted laparoscopically inside the abdominal cavity but outside the stomach, with two leads connecting it to the stomach wall. The sensing lead passes through the stomach wall and detects when a person begins to eat. This in turn sends a signal to the second lead, an electrode, which stimulates stretch receptor nerves on the outside of the stomach. In other words, it tricks the nervous system into thinking that the stomach is stretching when it’s not and delivers that message to the brain through the vagus nerve.
It seems to beat stomach stapling and gastric bypass surgeries.
Photo by PetitPlat Food Art – Stephanie Kilgast.