This new weight loss device can yank away your hunger

In weird, new ways to lose weight: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved a device known as the Maestro System that is implanted inside you to disrupt communication between your brain and stomach.

How it works: In a minimally invasive procedure, a doctor connects two tiny wires where your esophagus intersects with your vagus nerve, which connects the brain and the digestive system. Typically, the vagus nerve tells your brain when your stomach is empty and needs more food. The nerve also sends a signal to your brain to trigger the release of digestive juices that help your body absorb calories, and makes your stomach contract to send food toward your intestines.

 The wires connect to a battery-powered device implanted just below the skin near your ribs that sends electric pulses to intermittently block these stomach-to-brain signals. The technique (aka VBLOC therapy) is designed to block hunger signals and help your body absorb fewer calories, which ultimately helps you lose weight, according to a 12-month study in which doctors implanted 233 clinically obese patients with an active or non-active device. Patients who received the active device lost 8.5 percent more weight than the control group: Nearly 60 percent of the experimental group lost between 20 and 25 percent of their excess weight.

While the results seem pretty amazing, the most common side effects include abdominal pain, heartburn, pain around the implant, plus any number of surgical complications. Less common but possible side effects can include chest pain, belching, shoulder or throat pain, constipation, vomiting, difficulty swallowing, headaches, and more — all of which make this method sound almost as scary as other FDA-approved weight-loss techniques. Also: The device is battery-powered, so you need to charge it regularly by holding a charger against your skin near the implant. If that doesn’t deter you, keep in mind that this new technique isn’t designed to help you lose a pound or two — it’s only approved to treat obesity in people who’ve failed to lose weight in the past, and have one or more related health conditions.

Source: Cosmopolitan