Devices target the gut to maintain weight loss from GLP-1
Destroying dysfunctional tissue could reset metabolism
CHRISTINA HAD TRIED DIETING and exercise before. The weight always came off but then crept back on, especially after she gave birth to her son in 2022.
She had hoped that a new class of weight-loss drugs might finally offer something different. Obesity treatments such as Wegovy and Zepbound had just arrived on the scene, helping people slim down with unprecedented ease. But the price tag of these GLP-1 drugs put them out of reach. Christina’s health insurance wouldn’t cover the cost.
Desperate for another option, Christina enrolled in a clinical trial that guaranteed several months on a blockbuster weight-loss therapy—and then the possibility of something more. (Christina, a Texas woman in her early 50s, asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy about her weight-loss treatment.)
That something more wasn’t another injection or pill, but a one-time procedure using a new medical device. And instead of targeting the stomach or brain, it focused on the gut itself: rewiring how a part of the upper intestine, known as the duodenum, processes nutrients and regulates metabolism.
Performed via a minimally invasive endoscopic device, this approach is designed to help people who want to stop taking GLP-1 drugs. The goal is to lock in the benefits without the high costs, weekly jabs, or lingering side effects. And in 2026, the first company to develop such a device is likely to seek clearance to bring it to patients.
“We’re creating a new therapeutic area,” says Harith Rajagopalan, cofounder and chief executive of that company, Fractyl Health, based in Burlington, Mass.
This article led me to another on IEEE Spectrum site:
An Implant for Weight Loss, Powered by the Stomach …
In a recent paper in the journal Nature Communications, engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) describe a device to aid weight lossthat is less invasive than surgery and potentially more effective than diets and exercise regimens, which most people (myself included) struggle to stick with.
The nickel-sized implant, only 1 millimeter (mm) thick, attaches to the outside of the stomach and uses power generated by stomach movements to subdue feelings of hunger.
Rats with the implant shed 38 percent of their body weight over 100 days. Meanwhile, rats in control groups, which either did not receive the implant or had a sham implant, did not lose any weight.
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This new device relies on a tried-and-true biological mechanism for weight loss: Altering signals from the stomach to the brain by manipulating the vagus nerve, a communication highway between the two organs. In pig and human studies, blocking the vagus nerve signal resulted in meaningful weight loss and positive changes to energy metabolism and blood sugar control.
This makes me wonder if one could use an external PEMF device to similarly stimulate the vagus nerve connection to the stomach?