WASHINGTON, Dec 18:
Scientists have developed a battery-free, easily implantable device that fools the brain into thinking that the stomach is full after just a few nibbles of food — an advance that could help combat the obesity epidemic.
In laboratory testing, the devices developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US helped rats shed almost 40 per cent of their body weight.
More than 700 million adults and children worldwide are obese, say researchers who dubbed the growing weight-related health problems a “rising pandemic.”
The battery-free, easily implantable weight-loss devices could offer a promising new weapon for battling the bulge, according to the study published in the journal Nature Communications.
Measuring less than one centimetre across, the tiny devices — which are safe for use in the body and implantable via a minimally invasive procedure — generate gentle electric pulses from the stomach’s natural churning motions and deliver them to the vagus nerve, which links the brain and the stomach.
That gentle stimulation dupes the brain into thinking that the stomach is full after only a few nibbles of food.
“The pulses correlate with the stomach’s motions, enhancing a natural response to help control food intake,” said Xudong Wang, a UW-Madison professor. (PTI)
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