Freeze Your Way to Weight Loss?

If you pay any attention to the news, you may have heard about a recent pilot study: researchers exposed the vagus nerve to freezing temperatures—the nerve that controls hunger. They apparently didn’t freeze it solid, but just enough to slow down the transmission of signals. Without any other interventions, the 10 subjects lost an average of 3.6% of their initial body weight in 90 days. The purpose of the study was to make sure there were no hazardous side effects. The comments by scientists were what they always are: “Interesting, but much research has to be done.”

No, it doesn’t. This is not normal! Does anyone think that exposing oneself to magnetic waves while a needle is inserted into a nerve to freeze that nerve to lose weight is normal? Looking at the study’s average weight loss for someone 5’4” tall with a BMI of 35, that would be about seven pounds. Over 13 weeks. And at the end, no one has learned how to change his or her lifestyle to maintain whatever weight was lost, as minimal as it was. I know we’re always looking for an easy way out, but there are much better and safer ways to lose a half pound a week. Let’s move on.

What are you prepared to do today?