This miracle injection actually might help you lose weight

There’s no such thing as a miracle weight loss pill — but there is an injection for that.

Researchers at the Imperial College of London gave obese people a “medical bypass” — injecting them with the same hormones produced after gastric bypass surgery — and found the patients lost on average nearly 10 pounds in just four weeks.

The findings suggest that people with obesity can reduce their weight without having to undergo invasive surgery — also decreasing their risk of cancer, stroke and heart disease.

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

Previous research by the Imperial College of London found gastric bypass surgery is so effective because it produces three hormones originating in the bowels in higher levels — reducing appetite and causing weight loss.

Fifteen patients were injected with the same hormone combination for four weeks and the weight fell away. The treatment also reduced blood sugar levels in obese patients with prediabetes to near-normal levels.

Academics tested the theory by pumping another group with a saline placebo. They shed 5.5 pounds over the four weeks — nearly half what the hormone group did.

Still, a healthy diet is a far better choice, researchers found.

Patients recruited for the study who followed a very low-calorie diet or had the bypass surgery were still far more successful — losing 18.2 pounds and 22.7 pounds respectively.

Still, the study could be helpful for obese people looking to avoid the invasive and risky surgery, Tan said.

“Although the weight loss was smaller, using the GOP infusion would be preferable as it has fewer side effects than bariatric surgery,” she commented.

“If further trials are successful, in future we could potentially give this type of treatment to many more patients.”

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