Many reports over the past decade would lead most of us to believe that America has the highest prevalence of obesity in the world. When you go out in public – shopping or just traveling, it’s easy to see why we get that impression. One report stated if you really want to see just how obese America is, spend an hour walking around your local Walmart store.

Actually, the United States is number 12 on a list of countries with the highest prevalence of obesity. Starting with the most obese and working down to the US is: Nauru, Cook Islands, Palau, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Niue, Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, Micronesia, Kuwait and then the United States. Many think that there is something in the genetics of many of these Pacific island nations that tends to lead to obesity, but that is not the only reason America is obese.

America’s problem has been attributed to the abundance of fast foods, sugary food, high carb snacks along with a more sedentary lifestyle. Just a generation or two ago, before the advent of all of the electronic devices and games, most everyone was more physically active. Kids played outside a lot, running, chasing and getting lots of exercise they didn’t know they were getting. Adults were also more physically active in the workplace and at home. Add it all up and you find that America is getting heavier by the day. I recall hearing one nutritionist claim that it wasn’t global warming causing the oceans to rise, but the growing number of obese people causing continents to sink.

There as so many diet programs on the market and it could make your head swirl. Some advocate eating only fruits and certain vegetables and avoid all animal products. Others advocate eating lots of meat and very few carbs. There are juicing diets, cleansing diets, South Beach diet, Hollywood diet, Zone diet, Atkins diet, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem and hundreds more.

No matter which diet you try, it generally involves exercising (highly recommended regardless of dieting or not) and self-control. That’s the clincher that makes any diet program so hard for the vast majority of people.

Researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta have been experimenting with a way to conquer the dreaded ‘self-control’ factor that makes dieting so hard for so many. They started with a study group of 10 people, ages 27-60, and all with body mass indexes (BMI) of 30-37 (normal is 18.5 to 25).

The doctors conducting the research, inserted a needle-like instrument into the test subjects’ neck. Using a CT (computer tomography) scan to guide the needle until it reaches the posterior trunk of the vagus nerve. Then they subject that section of nerve to a dose of argon gas which essentially freezes the nerve with a subzero temp, which paralyzes the nerve.

Among one of the main function of the posterior branch of the vagus nerve is to send hunger signals from the gut to the brain. With the nerve paralyzed, the brain doesn’t get the hunger signals and so doesn’t trigger that need to eat feeling that defeats the self-control of dieting. That section of nerve also helps control the passage of food through the gut, so the food moves slower which also helps remove the feeling of being hungry.

All ten of the test subjects lost about 14% of their excess body weight in 90 days. Doctors say this is right at the recommended amount of weight loss for many reasons.

The freezing of the vagus nerve only lasts for about 9-12 months, but the researchers say that is long enough of the person to adjust to a lower body weight and train the body to not want as much food.

It is still in the experimental phase and researchers are not sure if there are any side effects from this treatment since the vagus nerve also has other functions, but so far, they have not found any adverse side effects.

For those of you who have problems with self-control in dieting, this may offer a way to overcome that huge hurdle. Keep watching for more information in the future and hopefully, it won’t be that long before the procedure is approved by the FDA and on the market.