The best vibrating, ingestible capsule for dieters in the near future

There are many people worldwide who go on a diet for many different purposes. Some people diet due to health issues, such as diabetes or obesity, while others diet for their outstanding appearance. Perhaps you might be a dieter as well. For dieters, like you, the most popular treatments are known as surgeries (gastric bypass surgery) and drugs like Ozempic. However, the truth is there are many side effects in terms of drugs; insomnia, increased blood pressure and heart rate, abuse, and withdrawal are just a few to tell. Also, surgeries and drugs are unaffordable for some people.

MIT engineers have devised a pill to minimize current issues of diet treatments. This pill is called the Vibrating Indigestible Bioelectronic Stimulator, VIBES for short. It consists of a vibrating motor and a minute battery made of silver oxide, all surrounded by a gelatinous membrane. When the parts are all assembled, it is the size of a multivitamin. Here’s how this pill-like machine works.

re from MIT news] Many areas inside our body control eating. The most renowned area is the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus can be divided into two parts: the lateral and the ventromedial hypothalamus. The lateral hypothalamus stimulates our hunger while the ventromedial hypothalamus triggers satiety, our fullness. When the pill reaches our intestines, it vibrates, releasing a frequency of waves similar to our ventromedial hypothalamus and other areas of our body when we feel full. Hence, the waves activate mechanoreceptors, which signal the stimulation, and the signal is transmitted to the ventromedial hypothalamus. These vibrations deceive our brains that we have eaten enough and secrete insulin, as well as hormones such as C-peptide, and GLP-1. When all of these hormones and signals are intermingled together, they digest food, make us feel full, and stop eating. Simultaneously, the levels of ghrelin and glucagon, which are hormones relevant to our hunger, decrease.

 The pill is currently being experimented on using pigs. It was found that when the pigs, the experimental group, took the pill 20 minutes before the meal, they consumed 40 percent less food, on average, compared to the other pigs, the control group, who didn’t take the pill. Despite the pill being made of small machines, safety has been also guaranteed. “The study shows no diarrhea, nausea or other negative impacts while the pill was in their digestive tract,” says Traverso, an assistant professor at MIT in the field of mechanical engineering. The pill is also thought to be produced at a reasonable price, which will be affordable for all individuals.

Yet, indeed, there are still improvements that need to be made. First, researchers are trying to make the pills completely indigestible and stay inside our bodies for a long time. By increasing intervals and decreasing the number of times taking the pill, they believe the capsules will be more affordable. Most of all, before it is applied to humans, it must go through at least three clinical trials. Scientists are trying to test the pills on dogs, which are animals that have analogous inner-body systems to humans. Lastly, it is believed that people might be afraid of pills containing internal “machines.” As a result, engineers are developing a way to control the capsule from outside the human body, just in case of any malfunctions of the pills.