Doctors said it might be possible to lose weight without diet or exercise with a new device that shocks away pounds. The new device is being tested in California.

The device is placed under the skin and emits an electronic impulse that blocks the signal to the brain that tells you you’re hungry. It’s the first time it’ll be tried on humans so it’s not available to the public just yet.

A clip actually goes around the vagal nerve and controls that nerve through a wire.The nerve sends hunger signals to the stomach. Interrupt the signal with a painless electric shock and hunger pains stop.

“The stomach is not contracting as much, so you feel full. You’re eating less and getting full quicker,” Dr. Ken Fujioka said.
Testing the theory is Fujioka, principle investigator for the first Food and Drug Administration human trial of enteromedics v-block therapy.

“This would go right under the skin,” Fujioka said.The pacemaker-like device is surgically implanted near the stomach. A belt, worn only during the day, under your clothes, signals the device to shut down the stomach’s nerve.

“It sends off a specific frequency that tells the nerve not to work,” Fujioka said.The trial will include men and women ages 18 to 65 who need to lose about 50 to 150 pounds.

The study will take about five years and results are expected to last for about two to three years.”What’s going to happen at the end of two, three years we really don’t know. It’s the first time this is really being studied in humans,” Fujioka said.

If all goes well, shedding those extra pounds may become shockingly easy.”The risks are lower. You’re not going to cut the intestines or rearrange them or anything like that. Rather just put this little electrode or cuff on the nerve and that’s it, you’re done,” Fujioka said.

The company that makes the device said if it’s successful and doesn’t have serious side effects, it would seek approval from the FDA.

Source: NBC10