Although there\u2019s no such thing as a weight loss miracle\ndrug, a battery-free implant may offer the next best hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New weight loss\ntechnology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison\nhave designed a tiny, implantable device that appears to decrease hunger and\nhelp people with weight loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The flexible nanogenerator is less than 1 centimeter wide\nand can be easily implanted using a minimally invasive technique. The device\nworks by sending small electrical pulses through the vagus nerve, which sends\nmessages between the brain and stomach, convincing the brain that the stomach\nis full. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, if it doesn\u2019t rely on batteries, what powers the device to aid weight loss? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The churning motion of the stomach! This means that the\nsignals are sent upon the arrival of food to the stomach (during peristalsis). <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe pulses correlate with the stomach\u2019s motions, enhancing\na natural response to help control food intake,\u201d explains the study\u2019s author,\nXudong Wang, who teaches materials science and engineering at the University of\nWisconsin-Madison, where the research was conducted. \u201cWe successfully\ndemonstrated this strategy on rats and achieved 38% weight loss in as short as\n15 days without further rebound, exceeding all current electrical stimulation\napproaches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n No side effects<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The research, which was published in the journal Nature\nCommunications, showed no infection and no measurable negative impacts on liver\nor kidney function. The implant stayed put for all 12 weeks of the trial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike gastric bypass surgery, the implant device doesn\u2019t\npermanently change the capacity of the stomach and is fully reversible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike a similar device called Maestro, which has already\nbeen approved by the FDA, the new implant doesn\u2019t require ongoing maintenance\nor charging. The Maestro requires both, including up to three hours of charging\nper week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, the Maestro uses high-frequency jolts to shut\ndown the vagus nerve rather than only doing it during consumption. The constant\njolt is more likely to cause the body to overcompensate, which can gradually\nreduce how effective the Maestro is over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new device might aid weight loss with very few side effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[703],"tags":[747,911,784],"class_list":["post-13183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weight-loss","tag-obesity","tag-technology","tag-weight-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthymale.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}