Experts ask FDA to revoke approval for AspireAssist diet device

Weight-loss experts want stomach-draining device off the market

o get the FDA to change its mind is probably as hard as making a U-turn with an oil tanker.

Despite that, critics of a newly approved device are asking — no, they’re begging — that the FDA reverse its decision on a new way to lose weight called AspireAssist.

Back in June when the agency OK’d it, I called it an FDA-approved eating disorder.

Now, experts from around the country are saying practically the same thing.

Hundreds of doctors are trying to put a stop to one of the most risky, disgusting and insane methods anyone could ever dream up to lose weight.

‘A bad joke’

If eating a meal, then pumping a portion of it out of your stomach sounds to you like the most bizarre idea ever — well, join the club.

Because experts are practically up in arms about the approval of AspireAssist.

Dr. Joseph Gutman, a diabetes specialist who practices in Florida, says that he’s “absolutely, utterly, and totally appalled” that the FDA could approve such a thing.

“It’s like a bad joke,” he said.

Well, it may sound like a joke, but believe me, when you hear how it works I don’t think you’ll be laughing.

During a short surgical procedure, a tube is inserted in your stomach that’s connected to a valve on the outside of your body. Around 20 minutes after you eat, the “external connector” is attached to that valve so you can “drain the contents.”

In other words, you’re pumping a large amount of what you just ate out of your stomach and into the toilet. The 20-minute wait is to trick your brain so you believe you’re full, but before the food gets digested.

Dr. Gutman, who has worked with obese patients for over three decades, is so intent on stopping the AspireAssist device in its tracks that he spearheaded a group of 750 other doctors who feel the same way. He said the group hopes to get thousands more, and has plans to sue the FDA unless the device is taken off the market.

The FDA approval of AspireAssist, Dr. Gutman said, marks the “most pathetic exhibition of ignorance” yet to come out of the agency.

He and those hundreds of other doctors who joined in also have an ally in the Academy of Eating Disorders.

Dr. Eva Trujillo, its president, wrote to the FDA that it’s “misguided,” “dangerous,” and could easily lead to bulimia and binge-eating.

And despite the fact that the company that makes this eating disorder device says patients can enjoy any food they want with it inserted in their stomach, that’s easier said than done.

In fact, things such as broccoli, carrots, other hard veggies, even fruits — you know, healthy foods — have to be chewed like a big pack of gum before you swallow so they don’t get stuck in the tubes that are only as big as a straw.

A spokesperson for Aspire Bariatrics, which makes the device, even commented that at “some point (people) just get tired of chewing.” You bet they do! And that certainly makes foods such as cake and ice cream so much easier to eat and pump out.

Despite all the crazy things I’ve told you about that the FDA has done over the years, this has got to be one of the worst. And people who have the device implanted appear to be in no rush to get it removed.

Seriously, who’s going to want to go back to weighing and measuring every bite of food when they can just keep on pumping?

But as I told you back in June, there is a way for the AspireAssist to help all of us drop some pounds.

Just close your eyes and think about it. And that should be enough to make anyone lose their appetite!

Sources:
“FDA urged to reverse OK for weight-loss device” Reuters, July 28, 2016, Newsmax, newsmax.com