- A clip is placed on each ear to deliver a mild electric shock to the vagus nerve.
Clips that “tickle” a nerve in your ear could be the secret to losing weight. Research suggests that applying a mild electrical current to the vagus nerve sends a signal to the brain that the stomach is full, curbing appetite.
A trial involving 150 obese people is now being carried out in Russia to see if it can help them lose weight without drugs or surgery.
More than one in four adults in England are classed as obese and a further 38 per cent are overweight.
Treatment usually begins with advice on diet and increasing physical activity.
A new generation of weight-loss drugs, such as Wegovy, is also prescribed to some obese people, defined as people with a BMI greater than 30, who have at least one obesity-related disease, such as type 2 diabetes.
Some clips that ‘tickle’ a nerve in the ear could be the secret to losing weight by sending a signal to the brain that the stomach is full, curbing appetite
The medications, given as injections once a week, slow the movement of food in the intestine, making you feel fuller longer.
Currently, around 6,500 people a year undergo obesity surgery on the NHS.
This usually involves placing a band around the stomach to reduce the amount of food it can hold or a gastric bypass, where the upper part of the stomach joins the small intestine, reducing the amount of calories absorbed from food.
But ear tickling therapy might be an easier approach. It involves placing a clip in each ear to stimulate a branch of the vagus nerve.
This is an important nerve that runs through the chest and neck to the brain and is involved in controlling everything from taste and swallowing to controlling heart rate, breathing, and digestion.
More than one in four adults in England are classed as obese and a further 38 per cent are overweight.
In recent years, vagus nerve stimulation has become a powerful treatment for epilepsy and depression.
And animal studies have found that stimulators that target the vagus nerve can trigger weight loss by sending signals that trick the brain into thinking the stomach is full.
Worn on both ears and connected to a battery-powered generator at the waist, the test clips are attached to the auricular concha, the clamshell-shaped cavity in the middle of the ear that leads into the ear canal, where a small branch of the vagus nerve can be found just under the skin.
The current trial by scientists at Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry involves obese men and women.
Half receive ten minutes of auditory stimulation before main meals every day for six months.
The rest of the groups receive a sham treatment: they also use the clips but do not pass current through them to stimulate the nerve.
The volunteers are being monitored to see how much weight they lose during the six-month experiment.
The results of the trial could be available later this year.
Dr Duncan Banks, a neuroscientist at the Open University, said ear stimulation is worth investigating as a way to tackle obesity, as it is non-invasive and appears safe.
“But it is still unclear exactly how it works and at the moment it is definitely not a substitute for other anti-obesity therapies,” he said.