Shocking New Way To Shed Pounds

Implant Suppresses Hunger Pangs With Jolts Of Electricity

(CBS)  Every morning before work, Mary Sue Kempton diligently makes a low-cal lunch and hopes another day means another lost pound.

Kempton says she's struggled to lose weight her whole life.

This Chicago native has been dieting so long, that now she's trying something truly shocking.

As CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports, Kempton has enrolled in a trial to test an electrical device - a stomach pacemaker - designed to help people shed pounds.

She doesn't know if her pacemaker is actually turned on because the trial needs placebos to prove whether it works. But she has lost 25 pounds since August.

"I see the scar, of course, everyday, but I forget that it's actually there," says Kempton.

Similar to a heart pacemaker, the device is surgically implanted. It gives off a mild electrical pulse in the stomach, which is supposed to curb your hunger.

"We make a series of small incisions in the abdominal wall," says Dr. Jay Prystowsky, who is running the experiment at Northwestern University's School of Medicine.

So far, Prystowsky has surgically implanted devices in 190 people.

"The theory is that the pacemaker sends an electrical signal to the stomach, and most likely the brain that tells the patients they feel full faster and don't have the appetite they normally have," says Prystowsky.

The truth is, no one really knows exactly how it works, but the pacemaker's interference with normal electrical impulses in the stomach seems to tell people to put down the fork.

The pacemaker, Prystowsky says, is speeding up the electrical current and creating "if you will, chaotic currents."

It's expected that an obese patient can lose 25 percent to 40 percent of their excess weight with the device, but there's a catch.

A healthy diet and exercise are still part of the plan. Patients in the trial all attend support groups to help them fight their cravings.

Kempton has learned the pacemaker alone won't melt pounds away.

"The bottom line is that I think the device is really what you make of it," she says.

But she is hoping this little electrical innovation will jumpstart the weight loss she's been striving for for years.