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Anyone who remembers the “Lost” series will be well aware of how a great magnetic storm can profoundly change the course of events. Obviously, compared to that fruit of the imagination, what happens in the human body is certainly different. But the fact remains that a magnetic stimulation correctly applied could also help for those who are faced with a health problem such as the strong overweight, which leads to obesity.
To say this, also explaining what could happen, is a research that appeared in Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases, coordinated by the research group led by Livio Luzi, Director of the inter-presidium Department of Endocrinology, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases of MultiMedica and Ordinary of Endocrinology at the ‘University of Milan, in collaboration with the University of Milan-Bicocca and with the IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi and the San Donato Group.
What does the stimulation do?
Transcranial magnetic stimulation o TMS is one of the most used neural stimulation techniques in the treatment of addictions, such as those from smoking or alcohol. It is a non-invasive or painful treatment, performed by placing a helmet or a coil on the scalp that applies an electromagnetic stress to specific regions of the brain, generating an electro-magnetic microcurrent at the level of the neurons capable of restoring the altered balances.
In 2019 a study appeared in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism had shown the usefulness of this technique to promote weight loss in the obese, without however being able to explain the mechanisms in detail.
The new research has set itself the goal not only of confirming the effectiveness of TMS in reducing food cravings in obese subjects but also of explaining its mechanisms of action in the brain. For this purpose, a sophisticated investigation technique was used, functional magnetic resonance, which made it possible to study the activation and connections of specific areas of the brain (involved in the regulation of eating behavior), in response to visual stimuli related to the food, before and after TMS treatment.
The study, randomized to a sham (placebo) and double-blind treatment, was conducted on 17 patients (6 of which with type 2 diabetes), who underwent 3 sessions of TMS per week, each lasting about 30 minutes, to a total of 5 weeks.
“In the obese there is a reduced activation of the prefrontal cortex and the insula, brain areas that regulate voluntary behaviors, with a consequent loss of control over food intake; in addition, there is an altered mechanism of the ‘reward’, due to a reduced production or action of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that supervises the reward brain circuit – explains Luzi. The obese patient’s way of increasing dopamine concentration is to continue eating, finding satisfaction in food.
In our study we have shown how, through bilateral electromagnetic stimulation of the prefrontal cortex, that brain region is activated, increasing the inhibitory control over food consumption and, indirectly, through an increase in the cerebral connections of the same area, to regulate production. of dopamine. Once treated, the patient will no longer need to look for the reward in food and, therefore, will eat less. Functional magnetic resonance imaging, performed at the beginning and at the end of therapy, after 5 weeks, confirmed this activation of the prefrontal cortex and the return of metabolism to normal, with a significant weight reduction in subjects undergoing TMS and an effect of the treatment that lasts for several months “.
And for whom “eat with your eyes”?
The research also shows that transcranial stimulation simultaneously also causes an inhibition of the visual cortex, which leads the brain to exclude the vision of appetizing foods towards which the patient had developed a form of addiction.
In practice, the activation of the area is reduced and consequently, the attention towards food and its attractiveness. This discovery, as surprising as it is fascinating, could stimulate further studies on the regulation of the hunger-satiety balance, which in obesity is altered, by studying the effect of TMS on other senses, such as smell and taste.
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