A nasal spray designed to fight obesity by blocking the senses of smell and taste moved one step closer to users when Compellis Pharmaceuticals announced that it will start human trials next year.

The Cambridge, Mass., company won a patent for it earlier this month.

"The pleasurable effect of eating is all stimulated by smell and taste," Christopher Adams, the company's founder and chief executive, told Reuters on Tuesday.

"The premise is that olfactory activity that controls both smell and taste is a trigger and a feedback mechanism to eat. If you have some kind of reduced sense of smell or taste, you tend to eat less," he said.

God, I hope so. With all the cookies and other goodies floating good smells through the office these days, maintaining some kind of food sanity has been nearly hopeless. The only thing saving me is working out every day.

I don't know if I want to totally give us my sense of smell, but if it helps me get over the weight-loss hump, I could go for it.

Check out the full article to learn about other obesity-fighting devices that may be coming to a drug store near you.

-- Amanda Barrett, amNY.com