Could it be a genetic disorder? (Eating disorders - how are they caused?)

Member Name: Neilshelp

Product:	Eating disorders - how are they caused?
Date:	03/07/06 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: If an abnormal gene can be found, it could be treated easier

Disadvantages: Reading to much into very small amounts of evidence

The increase in the recorded cases of Eating disorders such as Anorexia have increased rapidly in recent years, One reason over all the others has been pushed forward into the public eye as the main cause of eating disorders, the media. But could it be that models, celebrities and nations obsession with dieting and looking "good" be the only cause for eating disorders?

Recent research into a possible biological cause of eating disorders have come up with some very interesting results. The found that in pairs of identical twins where one twin has Anorexia, the other twin has a higher risk rate of developing an eating disorder than other non identical siblings, this suggests that their could be some genetic link.

Personally I do think the media has some responsibilty, but we also have to remember the awful slating gossip magazines gives to extremely skinny celebs aswell as the ones who are overweight. It also falls down to what the child witnesses when they grow up, parents shouldn't blame themsleves but i feel they should take on some responsibilty if while the child was growing up they were constantly dieting and complaining about their weight. As i believe this could have a profound effect on what a child believes is right and wrong.

I also think the over publicisation of eating disorders can also have a negative effect, It is well documented that some people who have eating disorders get "Tips" from stories of people with eating disorders in the press. It also leads the nation to panic about people having eating disorders when they are actually quite normal. I recently began, not to diet but to eat more healthily, through this and regular exercise i managed to loose around 2stone in weight. which brought me from being overweight, to average weight for my height, since then i have not lost anymore weight, but everytime my mum sees me she keeps telling me i'm getting even thinner and she thinks im anorexic. When in fact im near the heavier end of normal weight for my height my body mass index is normal and i'm eating 3 healthy meals a day, with some snacks in between, all this hype causes more harm than good.

Summary: Eating disorders could have a biologocal cause!