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“Neuroblocking” The Breadbasket

Bioscience pioneers EnteroMedics of the US and MRC Clinical Sciences Centre (MRC-CSC) of the UK believe a miniature implantable device, just a few millimeters wide, attached via electrodes to the vagus nerve in the peritoneal cavity of the abdomen could regulate electrical and chemical processes involved in appetite. The companies’ groundbreaking device performs “spot-checks” and “scoring”, collecting information and ascertaining whether or not eating is warranted; the device then sends signals to the brain regulating and modulating the “celerity” or rapidity of eating behavior. The device will simply send the exact same signals usually send by the stomach to the brain saying it is “satisfied.”

New Approaches to Archaic and Outmoded Diet Plans

People will no longer be mired in ineffective cogitative approaches like restraint, self-control, self-denial, self-discipline, fasting, or supping. More drastic medical procedures like bypass surgery or gastrectomies would become “schemes” of the past. Criteria used in giving a “green light” or “red light” to the brain would incorporate algorithms programmed into devices based on indexation and evaluation of relevant real-time physiological variables.

In short, the device would transform people from “engorgment” or “banqueting” behaviors causing indigestion and weight gain to “feeding” or “savoring” behavior; the metamorphosis from obese to slim would become “a walk in the park.”

Monitoring and Regulating the Vagus Nerve

The vagus nerve is extremely critical to human health, a “conductor” or “bandleader” if you will, controlling appetite, breathing, heart rate, secretion of acids in the digestive system, and contractions of the stomach. But that’s not all: the vagus nerve also provides information to the brain on how the body’s organs and systems are operating.

Dr. Tony Goldstone of MRC Clinical Sciences Centre which carries on research in epigenetics, integrative biology, genetics and metabolism, believes the technology will prove cheaper than dieting or other procedures. Goldstone’s group studies the molecular and cellular basis of metabolic and cardiovascular disorders and uses a combination of approaches to solve them: biochemistry, genomics, and physiological and imaging techniques.

Following is a video of Imperial College in the UK and its chip that will control hunger.