MIT's Remarkable Electronic Pill
Expands Like a Puffer Fish
For Weight Loss and Stomach Monitoring
A team of MIT mechanical engineers have developed an ingestible e-pill that once in the stomach expands in size like a puffer fish. It rapidly expands in the stomach, has a jello consistency and stays in place to take readings overtime. The researchers believe the expanding e-pill can also be used for weight loss.
Sophisticated e-Pill
This is a sophisticated e-pill that swells to the size of a golf ball. The researchers foresee several being ingested to give the stomach the feeling of being full and making it easier to cut calories. The device is composed of two hydrogels - a mixture of water and polymers. It stops in place in the stomach and overcomes the limits of other e-pills that just pass through. It can be equipped with sensors to monitor, for instance, stomach ulcers for 30 days at a time.
Commercializing It
To remove the e-pill, the patient would need to drink a calcium solution that shrinks it and allows it to pass through naturally. It's being lab tested in stomach-like models and the MIT team has plans to commercialize it.
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| Source: MIT - e-pill, swollen, shrunken by Calcium solution |
For Weight Loss and Stomach Monitoring
A team of MIT mechanical engineers have developed an ingestible e-pill that once in the stomach expands in size like a puffer fish. It rapidly expands in the stomach, has a jello consistency and stays in place to take readings overtime. The researchers believe the expanding e-pill can also be used for weight loss.
Sophisticated e-Pill
This is a sophisticated e-pill that swells to the size of a golf ball. The researchers foresee several being ingested to give the stomach the feeling of being full and making it easier to cut calories. The device is composed of two hydrogels - a mixture of water and polymers. It stops in place in the stomach and overcomes the limits of other e-pills that just pass through. It can be equipped with sensors to monitor, for instance, stomach ulcers for 30 days at a time.
Commercializing It
To remove the e-pill, the patient would need to drink a calcium solution that shrinks it and allows it to pass through naturally. It's being lab tested in stomach-like models and the MIT team has plans to commercialize it.
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