The device that beats any diet

by ROGER DOBSON, Daily Mail

A stomach implant that gets rid of feelings of hunger is helping overweight and obese patients shed excess pounds.

The revolutionary implant, which uses pulses of electricity to trick the brain into thinking the stomach is full, could radically change the way that doctors treat many seriously overweight patients.

The device is expected to be implanted in the first patients in Britain within the next few months.

New research shows that the implant can lead to huge weight loss, with the latest trial results showing that two-thirds of obese men and women lost 18 per cent of their body weight.

Obesity is a major problem in Britain where the incidence has tripled over the past two decades. Latest estimates are that half of all adults are overweight and that as many as one in five is obese.

One in 11 deaths is due to obesity or being overweight, and those who are obese are twice as likely to die from heart disease.

Obese women are 27 times more at risk of developing diabetes and have a 50 per cent increased chance of breast cancer, while obese men are a third more likely to die from cancer

The new treatment, the Transcend Gastric Stimulation System, company was talking to doctors and firms in the UK about the therapy, which could be available within three months.

Trials have shown the amount of weight loss varied. In the latest study, some individuals had great success. One patient lost four per cent more weight than she needed to.

The experience of another woman also helped doctors rule out a placebo effect for the therapy.

Some researchers had been concerned whether the benefits could simply have been the result of patients believing the implant was working because they wanted it to do so.

The woman, in her 40s, was desperate to lose weight and knew she had been implanted, but was disappointed that she had failed to shed even a pound.

Then, during a routine check, doctors discovered that one of the generator wires had come loose. They re-connected it, and over the next few months the woman lost 100lb.

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