The National Health Society has opened up a trust to spend on vibrating chairs. The chairs are intended to help obese people lose weight through massage. They are to be used while exposing overweight patients to tape recording convincing them to think thin and give up junk food.

The Miruji chairs, which cost £5,000 each, are expected to save thousands of pounds in treating the obese. NHS bosses have compared them to gastric band operations, which are used by many patients and cost £15,000 each.

This approach to obesity comes in response to growing concern among experts, who claim that almost 10% of adults are now so obese that their weight is considered a serious health risk by their GPs.

In fact, over 5.5 million people over the age of 16 are officially considered obese by their GPs. This figure is 250,000 higher than last year’s. Obesity is related to a sedentary lifestyle and an unhealthy diet. These two factors are also strongly linked to Type 2 diabetes, for which almost 2.8 million people are being treated.

These figures have been described as a “wake-up call” by experts.

Trials have seen patients lose up to 3 stones in 12 weeks. Based on these encouraging results, the Miruji Sit and Slim scheme is to be introduced in Hellesdon Hospital in Norwich.