Excess Weight Is Not The Verdict

Excess Weight Is Not The Verdict.
For the basic time, researchers have shown that implanting electrodes in the brain's "feeding center" can be safely done - in a tell to unfold a new treatment option for severely obese people who fail to shed pounds even after weight-loss surgery. In a initial study with three patients, researchers in June 2013 found that they could safely use the therapy, known as designing brain stimulation (DBS). Over almost three years, none of the patients had any straightforward side effects, and two even lost some weight - but it was temporary. "The in the first place thing we needed to do was to see if this is safe," said lead researcher Dr Donald Whiting, villainy chairman of neurosurgery at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

And "We're at the point now where it looks get off on it is". The study, reported in the Journal of Neurosurgery and at a meeting this week of the International Neuromodulation Society in Berlin, Germany, was not meant to exam effectiveness. So the big remaining difficulty is, can deep brain stimulation actually promote lasting weight loss?

"Nobody should get the image that this has been shown to be effective. This is not something you can go ask your doctor about". Right now, deep capacity stimulation is sometimes used for tough-to-treat cases of Parkinson's disease, a movement disorder that causes tremors, laborious muscles, and balance and coordination problems. A surgeon implants electrodes into unambiguous movement-related areas of the brain, then attaches those electrodes to a neurostimulator placed under the skin near the collarbone.

The neurostimulator continually sends elfin electrical pulses to the brain, which in turn interferes with the unusual activity that causes tremors and other symptoms. What does that have to do with obesity? In theory deep perception stimulation might be able to "override" brain signaling involved in eating, metabolism or feelings of fullness.

Research in animals has shown that electrical stimulation of a picky area of the brain - the lateral hypothalamic area - can excite weight loss even if calorie intake stays the same. The new writing-room marks the first time that deep brain stimulation has been tried in that brain region. And it's an grave first step to show that not only could these three severely obese people get through the surgery, but they also seemed to have no vital effects from the brain stimulation, said Dr Casey Halpern, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pennsylvania who was not labyrinthine in the research.