A Vibrating Pill Could Be the Next Big Thing for Obesity Treatment—Here's Why (2024)

Nearly 42% of Americans are living with obesity, making it one of the nation’s most pressing health conditions. The current obesity treatment options can be costly and invasive, limiting how many people who might benefit can actually access them. On average, people diagnosed with obesity pay $1,861 more in medical costs compared to people who don’t have the condition.

But some rumblings from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers suggest that affordable, accessible treatments for obesity could be just around the corner.

Good Vibrations?

The device shaking things up is a swallowable, vibrating pill.

The MIT researchers tested it out in animals—some lab pigs—by monitoring hormone levels while the device was vibrating. When the pill was activated and vibrating for about 20 minutes before the pigs were offered food, the researchers found that the pigs’ food consumption was reduced by 40% compared to when the pill had not been active. The pigs also gained weight more slowly during the times they were being treated with the pill.

But how does it work? It all has to do with how the stomach and the brain “talk.”

When the pill vibrates, it stimulates the stretch receptors in the stomach. These receptors, in turn, signal the brain (through the vagus nerve) to stimulate the production of insulin and hormones such as C-peptide, Pyy, and GLP-1. These hormones help digest food, but they also tell a person when to stop eating and help them full (even on an empty stomach). The receptors also signal the body to reduce levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone that increases a person’s drive to eat.

“The capsule is swallowed about 20 minutes prior to a meal,” Shriya Srinivasan, PhD, a lead author of the study and assistant professor of bioengineering at Harvard University, told Verywell. “It turns on when it makes contact with gastric fluid in the stomach.”

The current pill vibrates for about 30 minutes once it’s in the stomach, but it could potentially be redesigned to stay there for longer.

If you’re wondering—no, the pill doesn’t stay put in your gut forever. It would take about 30 hours for the pill to make its way through the digestive tract. In the study pigs, the transit time was longer—between four and seven days, according to Giovanni Traverso, MD, PhD, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and senior author of the paper.

Is a Vibrating Pill Safe for Humans?

Right now, the vibrating pill has only been tested in pigs. More research is needed to find out if it’s safe and would work well in people.

The animal research did show that the materials applied to the capsule are biocompatible, according to Traverso, meaning that the pill wouldn’t harm any tissues and would “transit through the body as any other solid would.” The animals also didn’t seem to have any severe side effects or complications from having the pill pass through their GI tracts.

There are no human clinical trials in process at the moment, but Srinivasan said the team “would like to continue this work, studying the effects of this treatment in longer studies and eventually translate this to humans.”

Traverso said the device would need to be evaluated in humans so the researchers can develop the stimulation parameters that would be necessary for it to work well and be safe. If the device is eventually approved for use, manufacturing and scale plans would be the next steps.

“We are open to working with industrial partners to take this technology forward,” said Srinivasan.

Are There Other Weight Loss Devices?

As a medical device, a vibrating pill for weight management could strike a balance between obesity surgery and medication. Currently, there are only three FDA-regulated devices that have been approved for weight loss:

• Gastric bands: Bands placed at the top of the stomach to leave a small amount of space for food
• Gastric balloon systems: Inflatable balloons placed inside the stomach to take up space and delay gastric emptying
• Endoscopic suturing devices: Stitching of the GI tract to reduce the stomach’s capacity

The vibrating pill relies on natural body signaling and could overcome some limitations of current obesity treatments.

“A capsule-based solution offers scalability and minimization of costs, making this accessible to global populations,” said Srinivasan.

Current obesity-treating devices and surgeries can be very expensive, making them inaccessible for a lot of people who might benefit from them. Compared to surgical options, a vibrating pill would likely be more cost-effective because it would not require additional resources, specialized facilities, or equipment.

Medications are another route for weight loss, but they can also be hard to access. Plus. a vibrating pill may not come with the side effects of popular weight loss drugs, since it triggers a natural mechanism in your body to tell your brain is full.