Suppressing Hunger Hormone Could Be As Effective As Bariatric Surgery

As malpractice, that is.

"US researchers working with pigs discovered a way of lowering appetite as effectively as bariatric surgery except they used minimally invasive surgery that suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin by vaporizing the main blood vessel that carries blood to the top section of the stomach (the fundus).

The study was the work of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Maryland, and the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and is published in the October 1st issue of Radiology.

The researchers wrote that about 90 per cent of the body's ghrelin comes from the fundus, and it needs a good blood supply to make it.

First author Dr Aravind Arepally said:

'With gastric artery chemical embolization, called GACE, there's no major surgery.'"

One good thing about the study - it was done on pigs which are more than similar to fat people.

One thing is clear - the researchers embolized the arteries to their brains.

Another idea that will bite back with virtual certainty.