One woman said she lost 60 pounds after undergoing a new minimally invasive weight loss procedure.
Brooke Nelson underwent a procedure called endoscopic ablation as part of a clinical trial involving just 10 women.
In the experimental surgery, a doctor inserts a camera into a patient’s stomach while administering fluid to protect the stomach tissue, said Dr. Christopher McGowan, founder of True You Weight Loss in Coley, North Carolina. . he told Good Morning America. McGowan is an expert in obesity medicine, internal medicine and gastroenterology and is co-leader of the trial.
A small device then cuts or burns the lining of the upper part of the stomach, producing ghrelin. Ghrelin is a hormone that signals hunger to the brain, inhibits insulin secretion, and helps the body store fat. This hormone is called the “hunger hormone.” This clinical trial is the first time that endoscopic ablation targeting ghrelin has been tested in humans.
Nelson, who once weighed more than 200 pounds, said she lost 20 pounds in the first six months after surgery.
“I just had less desire for food all the time,” Nelson said.Good morning, America”
“There are still moments when I want a chocolate chip cookie, but there are many more moments when I want something like a vegetable,” she added.
McGowan said patients in the trial lost 7% of their weight.
“We have patients who have had more than a year since their initial surgery, and we see that their hunger continues to decrease.” [and] They continue to report greater control over their diet,” McGowan said.
Although this procedure is “minimally invasive,” it still carries some risks.
“The risks of this technology can include things like ulcers, bleeding, and stomach damage. Those were the things we were really concerned about,” the doctor said.
“In this case, everything was mild, just cramps, gas and nausea, as you would expect when having abdominal surgery. But there were no complications,” he added.
Currently, patients who are severely obese, or have a BMI of 40 or higher, are candidates for surgical intervention such as gastric bypass surgery. According to Penn Medicine. Over 42% of people in the United States are obese; Healthline reported.
Endoscopic ablation procedures need to undergo further testing before being made available to the public. The doctor plans to present the results of the trial at a medical conference in Washington, D.C., later this month.
