We would all like a quick fix to lose weight. Weight loss is a hard road with a lot of different pitfalls. Different bodies require different strategies and the “miracle” diet your friend swears by may be useless to you. It’s disheartening when diet and exercise fail to make the inches or pounds melt away. In fact, for some people, surgery may seem like the only option. However, surgery is invasive, has risks and might not be the right course for some folks. Be it because of cost, medical reasons or personal factors, surgery is not an option for many people.

Scientists at the Imperial College of London have created an injection that makes the body react as though they have had gastric bypass surgery. They call it a “medical bypass.” The injection contains the same three hormones that are produced by the operation. The hormones reduce appetite, cause weight loss and improve the body’s ability to use sugar from food.

People who have received it have been losing 10 pounds on average. (https://nypost.com/2019/08/06/this-miracle-injection-actually-might-help-you-lose-weight/) And scientists saw, throughout the study, improvements in patients’ blood glucose levels.

“This result shows that it is possible to obtain some of the benefits of a gastric bypass operation without undergoing the surgery itself,” said lead author Prof. Tricia Tan.

The weight loss is not as significant as surgery. However, it’s an impressive result. And Prof. Tan said that, for people who want to avoid an invasive operation, “The weight loss was smaller, [but] using the [injection] would be preferable as it has fewer side effects than bariatric surgery.”

Gastric bypass surgery can cause chronic nausea, vomiting, dangerously low blood sugar and abdominal pain. The researchers saw no side effects at all with the injection. The study was small and would need more participants to confirm that. “Although this is a small study,” said Prof. Tan, “our new combination hormone treatment is promising and has shown significant improvements in patients’ health in only four weeks.”

We look forward to more studies because this could be a massive breakthrough for people who are struggling to lose weight but cannot have surgery. There are many different types of people, with various health concerns and backgrounds. Having many therapeutic options is so important because one treatment cannot work for everyone. This development could be a huge step forward in weight management health.