Stair lifts for elderly and disabled humans have been around for ages, but now a ridiculous concept gadget wants to offer the same help to obese and arthritic dogs. It bears the hilarious name Stair of the Dog 2022, and it works in a very similar way to the human version – but instead of a chair, it features a plastic basket to transport your pudgy pooch upstairs.

The clearly-humorous prototype was built after a report for UK pet insurance company More Than revealed that one in three UK dogs is currently overweight. The study went on to claim that by the year 2022, more than half of all pet canines in the UK will be obese. The doggie stair lift was apparently invented to illustrate what our pets’ futures could look like.

The Stair of the Dog 2022 probably isn’t intended to ever be a real product (there are way too many things that can go wrong with a dog riding in an open, moving basket), but it is a graphic reminder of how harmful it can be to over-feed pets. And who knows – maybe some enterprising person will add some safety features and make the canine stair lift a real thing someday.

The post Absurd Canine Stair Lift Lets Plump Pups Rest Their Dogs first appeared on Gajitz.

If there’s one thing we’ve heard over and over about the obesity epidemic taking over the developed world, it’s that there is no magic pill for weight loss. The closest remedies we have are invasive surgeries like gastric bypass or gastric banding, but these surgeries are fraught with dangers and potential complications. Boston-based company Gelesis is developing what they think could turn out to be a magic pill for helping very overweight people drop pounds quickly.

The pill makes the capacity of the stomach smaller, but rather than physically reducing the size as in gastric bypass surgery, it fills the stomach with a food-based hydrogel. The result is that that person taking the pill feels full and no longer wants to overeat. The capsule, called Attiva, contains tiny grains of a super-absorbent polymer. After being swallowed with water, the capsule dissolves in the stomach and the grains  expand to over 100 times their original size.

When the stomach is full of the swollen beads, the stomach’s owner would understandably feel satisfied with far less food at the next meal. A significant challenge with the pill’s development has been making sure that food is still digestible even when the stomach is filled with the polymer. Attiva has just passed its first human trial with no significant side effects, and the company is moving ahead with their clinical development. According to one member of the research team, taking a dose of Attiva makes one feel like they’ve just eaten a big plate of spaghetti.

The post Magic Obesity Pill? Gastric Bypass Pill Passes Human Trial first appeared on Gajitz.