Attiva May Combat Obesity

A new way of treating obesity has been unveiled recently, but it is a pill without a drug in it.  The pill is known as Attiva, and it promises to curb the appetite by fooling the stomach into thinking it is full.  By taking the pill with a glass of water, the ingredients in the pill absorb the water and swell up filling the stomach.  The full stomach signals the patient with the "All Full Sign" thereby reducing hunger cravings.  I wonder if this concoction mixed with water is sonographically visible?  We have used a cellulose solution for years as an oral sonographic contrast agent to visualize the pancreas. 

Gelesis engineered a super-absorbent polymer – is it ironic that it’s derived from an unspecified food source? – that can be reduced to small beads about the size of a grain of sugar. These tiny polymer beads swell up more than 100 times over when introduced to water, kind of like those little sponges you used to play with in the bath. So when you down a pill with a glass of water, the capsule dissolves in your stomach and the hydro-gel beads begin to grow. In a few minutes you’re feeling pretty full, and that second Double Down from KFC is decidedly less attractive.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-04/obesity-pill-swells-your-stomach-making-you-full-you-even-start-eating