Eight-month-old Santiago Mendoza sits at a clinic for the obese in Bogota March 19 ,2014. Mendoza, who weighs 20 kg, will be put on a diet, therapist Salvador Palacios said. REUTERS/John Vizcaino
Eight-month-old Santiago Mendoza sits at a clinic for the obese in Bogota March 19 ,2014. Mendoza, who weighs 20 kg, will be put on a diet, therapist Salvador Palacios said. REUTERS

Scientists have claimed that to fight the obesity crisis in Britain and to reduce type II diabetes, 'food capsules' can be used. Food capsules make the body feel full, killing hunger. It is being considered as an alternative to weight loss surgery.

The functioning of these capsules is to stimulate the lower intestine to make the body feel full as most obese and overweight people tend to ignore signals from the lower intestine to the brain about their body being full.

Professor Ashley Blackshow, lead researcher and professor of Enteric Neuroscience, said that obese patients undergo gastric bypass surgery where they are essentially re-plumbed.

She explained, "Undigested food bypasses the small intestine and is shunted straight to the lower bowel where it causes the release of hormones which suppress the appetite and help with the release of insulin. That makes the patient feel full and stops even the hungriest individual from eating. We believe it's possible to trick the digestive system into behaving as if a bypass has taken place."

She continued that this would be possible by administering specific food supplements which release strong stimuli in the same area of the lower bowel.

In the last ten years, there has been a huge line for patients to go in for weight loss surgery, an expensive one at that costing between £3,000 to £15,000. Patients on the National Health Service, who have a body mass index of over 40 and those who have a body mass index of 35 in addition to a serious health condition ike type 2 diabetes, are being offered the weight-loss surgery.

The director of the Centre of Clinical Practice in France, Professor Mark Baker, said that obesity rates have nearly doubled over the last 10 years and continue to rise, making obesity and overweightness a major issue for the health service in the UK.

Deborah Gilbert, chief executive of Bowel & Cancer Research, said, "This is leading edge science. Not only could Professor Blackshaw's work have a major impact on the growing problem of obesity and Type II diabetes, but with the link with weight and bowel cancer clearly established, it could have even wider implications."