New Device Leaves Patients Full, Happy
POSTED: Friday, February 16, 2007
UPDATED: 10:14 am CST February 19,
2007
HOUSTON -- Everyone is looking for that quick fix -- a way to lose weight fast. The promise of quick weight loss has sent many people under the knife trying to bypass their stomachs in order to eat less. A new device is pulling a fast one and the people who are losing weight said it is one con game they are just fine with playing, KPRC Local 2 reported Friday.
It is the ultimate magic trick for overweight people. Fooling the stomach into believing it's full is making it easer to leave the table satisfied.
Rachel Guerrero's weight makes controlling her Type II diabetes difficult.
"You want to be healthy and feel good and be able to do things with your family," said Guerrero. "It's really important that I start losing weight."
As part of a new study she is doing just that, thanks in part to a device called a gastric simulator.
"This is a way of sort of tricking the system to think that the patient's full even though the patient hasn't really ingested a full meal," said Dr. Mark Kipnes of the
Diabetes & Glandular Disease Clinic.
The pacemaker-like device is implanted, but unlike the gastric bypass or lap band procedures, it does not alter the stomach or intestines.
The device sends false messages to the satiety gland in the brain.
"The best way to describe it is a tingling sensation when I start getting full," said Guerrero.
Implanted near the stomach, a device is programmed by a computer to send the appropriate signals to the brain.
The gastric stimulator is being tested at the Diabetes & Glandular Disease Clinic in San Antonio as well as another city in the United States.
Eighty percent of the patients in the study have shown some form of weight loss and so far there have been no reported side effects.
The device has not yet received Federal Drug Administration approval.
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