减肥黑科技:冷冻饥饿神经
Weight loss can sometimes seem impossible because even after hard-won success, the pounds can creep back. “Ninety-five percent of people who embark on a diet on their own will fail or gain their weight back at the six- or 12-month mark,” Dr. David Prologo, an interventional radiologist at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, said in a news release video. “The reason for this is the body’s backlash to the calorie restriction." Prologo recently conducted a trial that looked deeper into the issue, targeting the "hunger nerve" and its possible connection to one's ability to lose weight and keep it off. The “hunger nerve” -- also known as the posterior vagal trunk -- is a branch of the larger vagus nerve that works on the heart, lungs and GI system. When your stomach is empty, the nerve signals your brain that you're hungry. 那么我们可以通过冷冻“饥饿神经”,降低信号传递强度,从而帮助肥胖症患者减肥吗? 普罗洛戈和他的团队进行了一次小型试验,他们将探针刺入实验对象的背部,在CT技术的引导下,用氩气冷冻“饥饿神经”。 By freezing the nerve, the hunger signal was shut down. The experiment was meant solely to test the safety of the procedure, and the team ran the study on only 10 people. All were overweight, between the ages of 27 to 66 and had body mass indexes (BMIs) ranging from 30 and 37 (those stretch from "moderately" to "severely" obese). Eight of the 10 participants were women. 注:身体质量指数是衡量人体胖瘦程度的一个常用指标,其计算方法是体重(千克)除以身高(米)的平方,通常认为数值30及以上为肥胖。 At the end of the procedure, the probe was removed and a small bandage was applied to the skin, with patients going home the same day. The researchers saw the patients again seven, 45 and 90 days after the procedure. Because it was a phase 1 trial, primarily looking for negative side effects, the technical success rate was 100 percent, there were no procedure-related complications and no adverse events on which to follow up. Though they weren't really looking at weight effects at this stage, patients said they had a decreased appetite at each clinic appointment, and there was an average weight loss of 3.6 percent. Additionally, all of the participants' BMI numbers came down about 13.9 percent. There was no mention of how long any effects on the nerve might last. It is far from proven that freezing the nerve will result in permanent weight loss but if it does, it could have a profound effect on the lives of those who have struggled to maintain a healthy weight. |