Anorexia may be more metabolic than mental,

scientist argues
New research suggests broken starvation response plays role in disease

By Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience

Anorexia may be a disorder more of the metabolism than the mind, according to a new paper that argues the disease is a sort of cousin of diabetes.

. . . In this theory, it's not stubbornness or a mental disorder that keeps anorexics from eating, it's their own bodies. The theory could explain why it can be so difficult to convince anorexic patients that anything is wrong with them, Dwyer told LiveScience.

"Unless we conceive of it as more of a metabolic function, I don't think we'll get past the first stage of treatment with a lot of the real hard-core patients," he said.

. . . Starvation and metabolism
Dwyer is careful to say that much more research is needed. But he says there is good reason to continue the work. Research on obesity has shown that being too heavy is more complex than simply calories in, calories out, he said. There are genetic and metabolic factors involved that make it hard for some people to shed weight. And obesity-related changes to the epigenome (our genes' on-off switches) can even be passed down from mother to child. The same could be true on the flip side, with starvation, Dwyer said.


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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43196217/ns/health-mental_health/