No Taste, No Smell, No Hunger... I'd go for it ;o)

[Voo36]

This is an older article, but I'd never seen it so was thinking maybe others havent seen it either. Opinions anyone? Personally, I think it has some feasibility!


Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Boston company will test nasal spray treatment for obesity


Compellis Pharmaceuticals of Boston said it has been issued an initial patent for a nasal spray that aims to treat obesity by blocking the senses of smell and taste.

"It seems so simple - blocking the sense of smell and taste," company chief executive Chris Adams wrote in an e-mail. "But it has never been used to treat obesity, and it really does work. Our bodies do not crave what we cannot smell or taste."


Compellis said it has demonstrated the effectiveness of its treatment in tests with animals and hopes to begin testing on people next year.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Compellis "the initial patent in a series of patent applications covering the platform technology" behind its treatment, the company said.

Compellis calls its potential product CP404 and describes it as a "calcium channel blocker used in a nasal formulation to block olefactory activity and reduce food intake."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)


Posted by Boston Globe Business

[HappyLC]

I think it sounds horrible! So much of the richness of life would be lost without those two senses. What an awful thing to do to oneself in the name of weightloss. :(

[MandalayVA]

Eat Altoids--does the same thing for way less money. :D I found this out when I quit smoking eight years ago.

[kallyn]

My sister had a friend whose father lost his sense of taste because of some medical problem (car accident?). He withered away to practically nothing because he just couldn't bring himself to eat anymore, and he sank into a deep depression and became suicidal. He said that all the joy had gone out of his life when he lost his sense of taste.

Not something I'd ever want to do to myself.

[pennink]

And smell is linked to memory.

(Some chemo drugs eliminate taste... horrible thing)

[MorganMac]

I love food and smells way too much to try something like this! The smell of shrimp sauted in garlic butter sauce - a thick steak on the grill, chicken satay! Mmmm.

All of these gimmicky products are bandaids. They don't solve the underlying problems of WHY people overeat. Until you fix that, anything like this spray, or the "no sweet tasting pills" are only going to give someone a quick, short lived break.

I find that eating low-carb is far more fulfilling when we create a healthy relationship with the food - I love shopping for the best, freshest ingredients, getting excited when the seafood is at its best or the veggies are particularly green and healthy looking, etc.

Why not celebrate the foods that we should be eating instead of trying to hide from food entirely?

Seems to me, if you need a spray or pill that removes your taste and smell in order to stop eating - there's a much bigger issue that needs to be explored instead.

[Samuel]

Very bad idea but also very effective means of losing weight. It may be good only for extra obese people who have no other way to control their weights.

[HairOnFire]

I dated a guy who lost his sense of smell in a car accident when he was 21 due to one of the olfactory nerves(?) being severed. He was rail thin, ate junk food up the wazoo, and didn't get much exercise. Both parents were overweight. When I knew him, he was in his 40s.

[Samuel]

I dated a guy who lost his sense of smell in a car accident when he was 21 due to one of the olfactory nerves(?) being severed. He was rail thin, ate junk food up the wazoo, and didn't get much exercise. Both parents were overweight. When I knew him, he was in his 40s.
We are not talking about losing the taste sense permanently. This is a controllable loss which can be stopped at any time. Additionally, I think a person does not have to block his/her taste completely, it could be blocked partially by adjusting dosage.

[pennink]

Dogs have fewer taste buds than we do, but it doesn't stop them from gorging... and on the most gross things... so ya, you'd have to block the sense of smell too.

There was an experiment where they blindfolded people and gave them different foods, telling them that it was strawberry, when in fact it was chocolate. The people had no idea, they believed what the tester told them. So... perhaps just wearing blindfolds at dinner? I'll tell my husband to say that my revolution roll is a big ol' hunk of sponge cake.

[Kendal]

Sounds good to me. If it's safe and cuts down on my appetite... I'd try it.

[diemde]

I can see where there might be a need for something like this, but I think it could lead to muscle catabolism. People who don't eat enough protein end up being in a viscious cycle with needing less and less calories to maintain their weight. That's the primary problem with most diets out there today.

Now if they came up with one to block only the carbs... :lol: