BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. -- Ear stapling could be a new way to curb your appetite, and some people are calling it a weight-loss breakthrough.

It's done with a tiny, stainless steel staple that goes in the rim of the ear, and it costs about $60.

Channel 4 Action News reporter Shannon Perrine talked with some people who got the staples, and they said it just stings for a second.

"My first set, I had lost like 17 and 20 pounds, and I had lost another 18 pounds after that. I'm up to like 38, 40 pounds right now," said Tricia Carmody, owner of EZ Staple by Tricia in Beaver Falls.

The silver rings work like acupuncture, supposedly triggering the "full" feeling through pressure points and turning off cravings for food or tobacco.

"Whether this is psychologic, whether this is physiologic, I think, is difficult to demonstrate," said Dr. Bruce Dixon, director of the Allegheny County Health Department. "Certainly, there are examples where procedures similar to this have had a beneficial effect on people and their health outcome."

"It's not necessarily that you won't get hungry," said Carmody. "You will get hungry, but when you sit down to eat, instead of eating that big bowl of pasta, you can only eat a little bit because your brain is telling you that you are full."

Some women came in after two weeks to get the staples repositioned because they have yet to feel or see the effects, Perrine said.

The bottom line on losing weight is getting your heart rate up often and burning more calories than you take in, Perrine said.

"Everybody wants a quick fix today," said Dixon. "They figure, 'I can do one thing once and it makes me better.' That's easier than the willpower that's needed to exercise daily, to watch one's caloric intake, to curtail their smoking."

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