New method supresses hunger
Thu, September 25 2008
He relied on a minimally invasive mode of vapourizing the main vessel carrying blood to the top section or fundus of the stomach.
An estimated 90 per cent of the body’s ghrelin originates in the fundus, which, without good blood supply, can’t synthesize the hormone.
“With gastric artery chemical embolization, called GACE, there’s no major surgery,” said Aravind Arepally, clinical director of the Centre for Bio-engineering Innovation, design and associate professor of radiology and surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
“In our study in pigs, this procedure produced an effect similar to bariatric surgery by suppressing ghrelin levels and subsequently lowering appetite.”
Arepally noted that for more than a decade, efforts to safely and easily suppress ghrelin have met with very limited success.
Bariatric surgery — involving the removal, reconstruction or bypass of part of the stomach or bowel — is effective in suppressing appetite and leading to significant weight loss, but carries substantial surgical risks and complications.
-IANS
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