A controversial new weight loss device called AspireAssist pumps out the contents of a user’s stomach, right after a heavy meal.
AspireAssist is the brainchild of Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway personal transporter, in collaboration with a group of bariatric surgeons. It is installed during a 15-minute surgery – a tube is inserted into the patient’s stomach, and threaded out through an incision the abdomen. Twenty minutes after a heavy meal, the user can attach a small pump to the outer end of the tube. The pump flushes the stomach with water, sucking all undigested food back into a bag. When the process is complete, the pump can be detached and the outer end of the tube sealed with a stopper. Twenty minutes is believed to be enough time for your brain to think you’re full, but not enough time for your stomach to digest all the food.
The manufacturers claim that the device can help avoid digesting as much as a third of the consumed food, by pumping it out and flushing it down a toilet. That means that 30 percent of all calories consumed magically vanish. “No one needs to ever know,” their marketing material states.
British gastroenterologist Dr. Anthony Shonde thinks that the device is ‘an excellent alternative to obesity surgery’, and plans to offer it to patients at his London clinic starting September. “Fitting and use is not dangerous and the weight loss results are nearly as good as surgery – but without the risks,” he said. He explained that the principle behind AspireAssist is the reverse of PEG feeding, “which we have used for more than 20 years to feed those too sick to take food by mouth.”
Of course not everybody thinks this is a good thing. “It is quite literally stomach churning,” says Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum, “It sends out every wrong signal in the book about healthy eating.” “I cannot believe how we invented a gadget that allows people to make gluttons of themselves and eat like pigs and not suffer the consequences,” he said, calling it “Vomit On Demand.”
Also, AspireAssist has its shortcomings – “the pump struggles to break up large foods like cauliflower, pretzels, and steak, so the tube might sometimes get clogged. There are also concerns of safety, such as the risk of dehydration, irritation of the stomach lining, and depriving your organs of vital electrolytes. Experts say it won’t be long before infections, leakage, poor nutrient absorption, depression, and even suicide become the side-effects of such a device.”
You have been warned. (via Oddity Central)
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