The latest studies showed that obesity is a worldwide concern.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – According to the date provided by a preliminary study, obesity could be treated with bariatric embolization. The procedure is commonly used in managing stomach bleeds, but it also proved itself useful in controlling the hunger hormone.
Clifford Weiss, the lead author of the study and an associate radiology professor at Baltimore’s John Hopkins University, believes that obesity could be treated with bariatric embolization.
For the moment, the idea is purely theoretical, and the radiologist and his team will begin a much more elaborate study in order to analyze the potential that the procedure could have.
The United States Health National Institutes believe that the method could be accompanied by a series of dangerous health risks. For example, they stated that on a short-term basis the bariatric embolization could cause infections and bleeding. Furthermore, on the long term, the procedure could trigger dangerous hernias.
Bariatric embolization is a medical procedure used by surgeons when patients are at risk of bleeding into their stomach. In order to prevent that from happening, they inject microscopic beads into the artery that is supplying the stomach.
Upon analyzing a sample of 32 patients that had the procedure, Weiss and his team discovered that there is a connection between the blocked artery and weight loss.
Upon further investigation, he found that patients who had the beads injected into their left gastric artery lost approximately eight percent out of their total body weight in three months.
By contrast, people that had the beads injected into a different artery only lost one percent out of their total body mass.
The explanation for this occurrence is simple. The left gastric artery is responsible for supplying the fundus, which is a part of the stomach which produces the ghrelin hormone or the hunger hormone.
Due to the fact that the microscopic beads slow the blood flow from the artery to the fundus, the ghrelin hormone is produced in smaller quantities, thus making the patient crave less food.
Weiss presented his preliminary conclusions during the annual meeting of the International Radiology Society that took place in Vancouver, Canada.
Some of his colleagues were skeptical about his research, stating that the procedure could prove to cause much more complications than relevant weight loss progress.
Others were pleased with his presentation saying that the John Hopkins professor is on his way to revolutionizing the treatment of obesity.
Obesity could be treated with bariatric embolization, but only if the broader study concludes that the procedure is safe for the patients.
Image source: YouTube
Joe Hennessey
