Are You A Candidate For A Vagus Nerve Microchip?

Could the vagus nerve microchip be the answer to your weight loss goals? Only your doctor will know for sure, but here are some important considerations.

• The newly announced microchip is not the only device that has been used to help regulate the vagus nerve so patients can lose weight. Other kinds of surgically implanted pacemakers have been used in weight control (almost always for people who are seriously obese, with BMIs between 35 and 50) since the 1990's.

• With the older vagal stimulation technology, weight loss in the six months after surgery has been 14 to 23%. There are not enough data to generalize results of the new chip technology, but it is likely that the microchip will get similar results.
• Most of the weight loss when appetite reduction is achieved by stimulating the vagus nerve comes from body fat, rather than muscle.
• Most people who are implanted with devices to stimulate the vagus nerve report diminished appetite for sweets.

However, there is also a potential downside to using vagal nerve stimulation, sometimes referred to as VNS, for weight loss:

• There haven't been any definitive studies that confirm that people treated with the device keep weight off long-term.
• There are occasional side effects from implantation of the older devices, such as hoarseness, coughing, alteration of the voice, throat pain, snoring, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, and infection. The older approach, however, involved implantation of the device in the chest, while the new microchip is implanted in the abdomen.
• The newer weight loss chip does not directly stimulate the vagus nerve. Instead, it sends signals to the brain when it detects changes in activity in the vagus nerve. Less is known about the long-term results of microchip implantation than about the older VNS technology.

For some people who have struggled with weight control for their whole lives, however, vagal nerve stimulation is almost a miracle. Appetite is switched off without stapling the stomach or injecting Botox into the belly or surgically removing parts of the stomach through an inherently risky surgical procedure. The results of VNS are just as fast as those from gastric bypass and come with far less risk. Only you and your physician, however, ultimately can decide if vagal nerve stimulation therapy is for you.