Obesity could be cured by turning off ‘hungry hormone': trial study - New York Post

Ahmed, a bariatric surgeon at London’s St Mary’s Hospital, will see nearly 80 volunteers go through the procedure called bariatric embolisation and have their ghrelin turned off, which is nicknamed the ‘hungry hormone’.

Speaking to the MailOnline, Mr Ahmed said that if bariatric embolisation became routine, patients could be out of hospital in two hours.

The doctor said the method’s fast speed and low cost would open up obesity treatment to many more people, but said the effectiveness of it would need to be proved first.

The mother of one, who is 5ft 11in and now weighs 15 stone, said: “I can’t remember a time in my life when I haven’t been overweight or obese.

Dr Clifford Weiss of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, who is leading a parallel trial of 64 US patients, said: “The goal here is to make patients healthier in the least invasive way possible.”

The treatment was welcomed by Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, who said the NHS had to look at cheaper, quicker alternatives to bariatric surgery, adding: “Obesity is now such a big problem, we’ve got to think outside the box.”