Body image issues and insecurities about the way we look and feel about ourselves play a big role in our self-esteem. Some of us are super comfortable with our bodies while a lot of people have issues with body weight and try to employ various ways to rid their body of the extra fat. These methods may range from changing their lifestyle or taking extreme steps like throwing up their food or starving themselves.
Turns out, scientists have come up with a new way to lose weight by freezing one of the nerves in the body. This was discovered in a study done by Society of Interventional Radiology, where they intend to freeze a nerve that carries hunger signals to the brain and is targeted at controlling mild to moderate obesity.
According to India Today, during the procedure, an interventional radiologist inserts a needle through the patient’s back. They are guided by live images from a CT scan and use argon gas to freeze the nerve, which is known as the posterior vagal trunk, located at the bottom of the oesophagus. This nerve is responsible for telling your brain that your stomach is empty.
In simpler terms, you are eating less because the response is reduced. The experiments have already been conducted on 10 patients for 90 days and no complications have been reported yet. All the subjects reported decreased appetite and overall weight loss of 3.6 percent of initial body weight and nearly 14 percent of the excess BMI.
The lead author of the study David Prologo talked extensively about the experiment and said,
“Medical literature shows the vast majority of weight-loss programs fail, especially when people attempt to reduce their food intake. When our stomachs are empty, the body senses this and switches to food-seeking survival mode.
We’re not trying to eliminate this biological response, only reduce the strength of this signal to the brain to provide a new, sustainable solution to the difficult problem of treating mild obesity.”
During the process, several limitations were noticed by the authors, including the small sample size and the interim nature of the results. Preparations are being to conduct trials at a larger scale after the research was presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting.
However, the studies which are directed to make people healthy across the globe does have the potential to motivate people to starve themselves. However, every research has its pros and cons. What do you think about this? Let us know!