Diet Pill To Replace Stomach Surgery

Newly developing diet pill will offer a brand new weight loss technique by reducing the size of stomach, which is currently being done by bypass surgery.

'Gastric banding' and 'stomach stapling' are surgeries reducing stomach size. These are the most effective weight loss treatments, but they have adverse side effects and are complicated. For example, 1 out of 100 bypass patients die within 12 months after surgery. Most of patients have difficulties with dense food, they need to chew it properly and eat slowly to avoid stomach discomfort.

The new pills will have the same efficiency in stomach size reduction as surgeries, but it will be much safer, easy to implement and with less side effects.

While eating, stomach relaxes muscular wall and expands to digest food. Muscular wall is found to have P2Y1 and P2Y11 receptor proteins, they get signals from nerve cells and control gut wall size. The new pill will block receptor cells to prevent gut expanding. This means that one may eat very little and take a pill to feel full.

Dr Brian King from University College London said: "This would be a brand new approach to weight control. At present, the most successful way to help obese patients lose weight is gastric banding or stomach stapling, both of which reduce the maximum volume of the stomach. But these are also tricky surgical procedures, not without attendant risks. A pill that could replace this surgery, yet have the same effect, might be a useful alternative."

Scientists from University College London are currently working on the pill that introduces a brand new approach to weight loss.