Want to Lose Weight? Have Brain Surgery. (Well, Deep Brain Stimulation. That sounds fun.) Although, as we all KNOW - weight loss surgery does not do it all. Many of us have said, "If only they'd fixed my brain."
I am a little disturbed, and also a little intrigued.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18826348
Obesity is a growing global health problem frequently intractable to
current treatment options. Recent evidence suggests that deep brain
stimulation (DBS) may be effective and safe in the management of
various, refractory neuropsychiatric disorders, including obesity. The
authors review the literature implicating various neural regions in the
pathophysiology of obesity, as well as the evidence supporting these
regions as targets for DBS, in order to explore the therapeutic promise
of DBS in obesity. The lateral hypothalamus and ventromedial
hypothalamus are the appetite and satiety centers in the brain,
respectively. Substantial data support targeting these regions with DBS
for the purpose of appetite suppression and weight loss. However,
reward sensation associated with highly caloric food has been
implicated in overconsumption as well as obesity, and may in part
explain the failure rates of conservative management and bariatric
surgery. Thus, regions of the brain's reward circuitry, such as the
nucleus accumbens, are promising alternatives for DBS in obesity
control. The authors conclude that deep brain stimulation should be
strongly considered as a promising therapeutic option for patients
suffering from refractory obesity.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/ playerIndex?id=7044450
Want to Lose Weight? Have Brain Surgery. (Well, Deep Brain Stimulation. That sounds fun.) Although, as we all KNOW - weight loss surgery does not do it all. Many of us have said, "If only they'd fixed my brain."
I am a little disturbed, and also a little intrigued.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18826348
Obesity is a growing global health problem frequently intractable to current treatment options. Recent evidence suggests that deep brain stimulation (DBS) may be effective and safe in the management of various, refractory neuropsychiatric disorders, including obesity. The authors review the literature implicating various neural regions in the pathophysiology of obesity, as well as the evidence supporting these regions as targets for DBS, in order to explore the therapeutic promise of DBS in obesity. The lateral hypothalamus and ventromedial hypothalamus are the appetite and satiety centers in the brain, respectively. Substantial data support targeting these regions with DBS for the purpose of appetite suppression and weight loss. However, reward sensation associated with highly caloric food has been implicated in overconsumption as well as obesity, and may in part explain the failure rates of conservative management and bariatric surgery. Thus, regions of the brain's reward circuitry, such as the nucleus accumbens, are promising alternatives for DBS in obesity control. The authors conclude that deep brain stimulation should be strongly considered as a promising therapeutic option for patients suffering from refractory obesity.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/