The Internal Dieting Machine
Jon’s Comments: A friend of mine sent me this article today, and I just had to reprint it. We’ve hit an all-new low. While I can actually understand, to some degree, stomach reduction surgery (especially for severe cases of obesity), this is just borderline silly. If you’ll note, the doctors involved state that this new and no-doubt expensive little device “will not work without adopting a healthy diet and exercising.”
Gee…let’s just think about this for a second. Exactly ‘how’ are they going to measure the effects? How does one compare a change of lifestyle with the addition of what’s tantamount to a Borg implant? (For all you non-Star Trek folks, The Borg are cybernetic organisms…kinda like our vice president, but slightly more human.)
Chances are very great that the device gives people who have no hope ‘certainty’, and those of you who have been listening to my new M-Power Audios know what I’m talking about. Certainty is great, but I have doubts as to this system of acquiring it. Seems risky, and potentially useless, as natural foods are your best defense against overeating to begin with.
That’s my initial take…I’m open to yours.
Jon
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A new weapon has emerged in the fight against the flab—the stomach pacemaker.
The device, currently undergoing trials in the United States, gives off a mild electrical pulse in the stomach which curbs hunger.
It could help a patient lose 25 to 40% of their excess weight.
But the device—the Transcend Implantable Gastric Stimulator made by New Jersey-based Transneuronix—will not work without users also adopting a healthy diet and exercising.
Gastrointestinal surgeon Jay Prystowsky of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago is working at one of eight trial sites for thepacemaker in the United States.
He has implanted the device in 190 people so far.
“We make a series of small incisions in the abdominal wall,” (he said). “The theory is that the pacemaker sends an electrical signal to the stomach, and most likely the brain that tells the patients they feel full faster and don’t have the appetite they normally have.”
“It’s not like patients eat a Big Mac and get a shock. They can’t feel vibrations or other sensations. They just notice that they’re full faster, and they can’t put a finger on why.”
Dr Prystowsky said that the device would probably work best for people looking to lose moderate amounts of weight, between 50 and 100lbs.
The makers are at least two years away from having the device approved in the US.
Source: Sky.com/SkyNews Channel 501
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