There are days when all we think about is food. For some, this can be “torture”.
Because dieters who want to lose weight, or at least keep it off, know that no matter how creative a cook you are, there is nothing more tempting than sugary or fatty foods. Now science may have the answer: vibrating tablet taken before meals induces a feeling of fullness.
A study that has not yet been conducted on humansbut only on laboratory pigsshows that 30 minutes after taking the tablet, called Vibes, the pigs ate on average almost 40% less food over the next half hour than without the device and gained weight much more slowly.
The name Vibes is actually an acronym derived from the pill’s full name: vibrating oral bioelectronic stimulator. A test on pigs showedthat the vibrations activate stress receptors in the stomach, which are usually activated when the stomach wall is stretched, as happens during eating. This causes signals to be sent to the brain’s hypothalamus through the vagus nerve, increasing the levels of various hormones that cause feelings of fullness and decreasing those that lead to feelings of hunger.
“We believe that the Vibes tablet should be taken on a relatively empty stomach, 20 to 30 minutes before the expected meal, to induce the desired feeling of fullness as early as possible,” the research team notes, adding that if mass production is carried out, the cost of a tablet will not exceed one dollar.
The vibrations caused by the operation of the “battery” inside the capsule, which is swallowed, are activated when stomach acid dissolves the coating of the drug (capsule). Researchers say that vitamin sized tablets offer an alternative, non-invasive, temporary treatment without the need for surgery for weight loss and are eliminated from the body along with other solid waste during normal bowel movements (going to the toilet).
In addition, experimenters believe that pills could be developed that are implanted or remain in the stomach to reduce the need for people to take them repeatedly.
“This approach offers an alternative and potentially synergistic approach to other obesity treatments, in addition to those already available today,” said Giovanni Traverso, assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and study author. The pill does not involve the use of drugs that can have serious side effects, he added.
Lately, the initial enthusiasm for injectable treatments such as Wegovy appears to have waned among those facing problems such as persistent nausea.
One of the sponsors of the vibrating tablet study is also Wegovy’s manufacturing company, Novo Nordisk.
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