Pioneering operation using tiny beads turned off my hunger hormones!

NHS hospitals will soon start trials of a new procedure to treat obesity by turning off the ‘hunger hormone’. 

Kirsten Kerfoot, 32, a nurse and mother of one, from Baltimore in the U.S., was one of the first in the world to benefit from it. 

Here, Kirsten and the doctor who treated her, as well as the British surgeon who will perform the first such procedure in the UK within the next few months, talk to Rachel Ellis.  

There’s not been a time in my life when I haven’t been overweight or obese. I ate a lot of cheese and loved sweets; and if I saw an advert for Chinese food on TV, I’d think: ‘I want it!’ The thought would stay in my mind for days.

Over the years I’ve tried all kinds of diets. I’d shed a few pounds, then I’d stop losing weight and get bored and put it all back on again.

At my heaviest, I weighed 23st 8lb; as I am 5ft 11in, my BMI was 46, ‘morbidly obese’ [below 25 is ‘healthy’].

And there have been consequences for my health. My gallbladder had to be removed when I was just 24 because I had gallstones. Doctors said it was linked to years of yo-yo dieting.

I developed type 2 diabetes and two years ago started taking insulin. I also had high blood pressure and sleep apnoea [where your airway temporarily collapses as you sleep], which left me feeling exhausted the next day.

While I was training to be a nurse practitioner in 2020, I realised my weight was going to make my job problematic, too. Part of my role would be asking people to lose weight — yet I was obese, so that made me feel uncomfortable.

As diets never worked for me long term, I knew I needed some kind of surgery to help me make the change. But weight-loss operations such as gastric bands and sleeves seemed like major operations and required you to stick to a strict diet afterwards.

I looked online for new options and found a trial which was investigating left gastric artery embolisation (LGAE), in which they cut off the blood supply in one of the arteries supplying the stomach, to reduce levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin that sends messages to your brain telling you to eat.

The idea appealed to me as it was less invasive than traditional bariatric surgery and I’d be back to a normal diet within days.

I was accepted on the trial in January 2021. I attended some appointments to help me make changes to my diet, and then had the procedure in March under sedation.

I had grumbly pain in my stomach for three days afterwards so took paracetamol, and stayed in hospital for two nights due to nausea (I am sensitive to pain medicine). I was eating normal food after by the end of the week.

Since the operation, a lot of the hunger pangs have gone. In fact, I don’t think about food until I sit down to eat.

I have cut out snacks and eat three meals a day. For breakfast I have yoghurt or porridge and fruit, then a turkey sandwich and fruit for lunch and dinner; I limit red meat to once a week.

I’ve lost 6st 7lb in the ten months since the operation, and am now 14st 12lb — my lowest ever. My sleep apnoea has disappeared and I am off all blood pressure and type 2 diabetes medication.

I now can work a 12-hour shift and still have energy — and for the first time in my life I can cross my legs and be comfortable.

My husband Aaron, a teacher, is proud of what I have accomplished and, best of all, I can run around with my son Quentin, who is two and never stops. I just hope the results last.