Swallowing gastric balloon pill could cure your obesity: report

If only weight loss were as easy as swallowing a pill — and now, it might be.

Doctors from Italy have developed an easy-to-swallow capsule that fills with water to create a small balloon after it settles in the stomach. 

The soft balloon, which is about the size of a baseball, reduces the amount of food that can be consumed.

When the balloon is combined with the diabetes drug liraglutide (Saxenda), which also suppresses appetite, people can lose almost 20% of their body weight, according to researchers.

Combining the drug and the balloon gives doctors “further options in managing obesity in patients who need additional weight loss or increased durability,” said researcher Dr. Roberta Ienca, of the Nuova Villa Claudia Clinic in Rome.

Gastric balloons for weight loss have been around for years, but they typically require sedation and an invasive endoscopic procedure. This new balloon, developed by Allurion Technologies, doesn’t require an endoscopy or a sedative and takes just 20 minutes to put into place.

“The ease of use and low rate of adverse events make it an ideal primary weight loss therapy that can be complemented by medications or other treatments,” said Ienca, who is also an adviser for Allurion.

The latest research into the balloon, presented this week at the European Congress on Obesity in Dublin, included 181 men and women with obesity. They also started on the diabetes drug liraglutide one to four months after the placement of the soft balloon.

After 16 weeks, the participants lost an average of 29 pounds. The balloon is designed to empty itself after about four months and is then excreted naturally.

Not all medical professionals, however, are enthusiastic about the new gastric balloon. Dr. Mitchell Roslin, director of bariatric surgery at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, NY, noted that any sustained weight loss is mostly due to the use of liraglutide.

“If you didn’t have the medication, they’d regain all of their weight after the balloon is removed,” Roslin told HealthDay News.

“Temporary devices are just that, they’re temporary,” Roslin added. Sustained weight loss requires a “lifetime commitment no matter what you do.”

In a previous study of the balloon, published in 2020 in the journal Obesity Surgery, 1,770 participants had a total body weight loss of 14.2%.

“The ease of use, low rate of serious adverse events, and potentially lower cost … enable much wider application of gastric balloon technology across the overweight and obese population,” the 2020 study authors wrote.

“Furthermore, elimination of endoscopy and sedation for placement and removal may expand use to a wider group of physicians managing overweight and obese individuals,” they added