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Taylor Huffman

Huffman 1

Professor Malcom Campbell


English 1103
04/06/2016
Genetic Contribution to the Development of Eating Disorders
Imagine being 14 and sitting on the examination table at your pediatricians office and
being told you have an eating disorder. Imagine being told you have to start counselling
immediately and the only real solution is to just eat when eating is your biggest fear. The
experience is a terrifying one, you are thrust into this world of personal hell all for what? It
seems as if there is no explanation for why you, of all people, are having to deal with this disease
and that there is no explanation other then perhaps flaw in brain chemistry. As someone who has
struggled with an eating disorder for five years now, finding out the possible causes of my
suffering is highly important to me as well as many others I would imagine. There have been
scientific breakthroughs to suggest that eating disorders are more than just physiological
disorders and are also biological disorders.
Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by a person severely restricting
caloric intake or starving themselves with an extremely distorted perception of their body.
Sufferers of anorexia typically have an intense fear of gaining weight and which leads to
excessive weight loss. Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder also characterized by a person
having an extremely distorted body image, but with bulimia the sufferer will have episodes of
extreme eating called bingeing followed by self-induced vomiting also known as purging.
Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, it has been found that the
mortality rate for anorexia nervosa is 4.0%, for bulimia nervosa it is 3.9% and for EDNOS,
which stands for eating disorder note otherwise specified, it is 5.2% (Kaye). It is estimated that

Taylor Huffman

Huffman 2

Professor Malcom Campbell


English 1103
04/06/2016
between 1.0% and 4.2% of women will suffer from anorexia in her lifetime yet only one-third of
those struggling with anorexia will receive treatment. It is estimated that 4% of women will
struggle with bulimia nervosa in her lifetime while only 6% of those suffering will receive
treatment (Eating Disorder Statistics & Research). According to the website for Eating Disorder
Hope, eating disorders are a daily struggle for 10 million women and 1 million men in the
United States while four out of ten individuals have either experienced an eating disorder or
know someone who has. Eating disorders do not exclusively affect women, just a few statistics
on men and eating disorders are .3% of men will struggle with anorexia nervosa, .5% of men will
struggle with bulimia nervosa, and .2% of men will struggle with binge eating disorder (Eating
Disorder Statistics & Research). Eating disorders are even more prevalent among adolescents,
according to The National Institute of Mental Health 2.7% of teens aged 13-18 struggle with an
eating disorder. Half of teenage girls report using unhealthy methods to lose weight including
restrictive food behavior, purging, smoking cigarettes, and using laxatives while 30% as teenage
boys partake in the same practices.
There seems to be a misconception among society as a whole that eating disorders are
exclusively a mental illness which simply isnt true. Many people in society seem to think the
solution is to just eat or that if they tell people suffering from eating disorders how thin they
are or maybe how unhealthy they look it will just click and all of a sudden the disordered eating
will change. It is an injustice to those suffering or who have suffered in the past everywhere to
try and simplify this disease as just a choice or an unhealthy diet. Yes, eating disorders are mental

Taylor Huffman

Huffman 3

Professor Malcom Campbell


English 1103
04/06/2016
illnesses, but there is also much more to them than that. In the article titled Eating Disorders:
About More Than Food it is included that researchers are finding a combination of factors that
contribute to the development of an eating disorder such as genetic factors. It is said that research
is being done to find out the role of genetics in the development and treatment of eating
disorders.
Two of the first genes that are linked to eating disorders are ESRRA and HDAC4. When
mutilations in these genes are found in people, it causes them to have a 90 and 85 percent chance
of developing an eating disorder. Scientists from the University of Iowa and the University of
Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied single families in which eating disorders were
common across generations which led to the discovery of the two genes named above. Although
the chances of having one of these mutations is rare, the data is highly significant in part simply
because it can provide at least a partial peace of mind for patients or families of those affected
who have been blaming themselves for the battle with the eating disorder. Knowing these two are
potential causers of eating disorders allows scientists to understand and learn about the
underlying causes of these illnesses and help shape the pathway to prevention.
In a webpage article entitled A Genetic Link To Anorexia found through the American
Psychological Association there is in fact findings that there is a genetic linkage to anorexia. The
study behind these findings compared DNA of family members who have an eating disorder with
individuals in the same family suffering from anorexia nervosa. Where these individuals genes
had similar markers was noted. When the sample was narrowed down to 37 families that contain

Taylor Huffman

Huffman 4

Professor Malcom Campbell


English 1103
04/06/2016
two or more individuals with anorexia nervosa, the evidence was much stronger. The genetic
findings were located on chromosome 1 which does help researchers narrow down the search for
genetic factors contributing to eating disorders, but may not be as helpful as one might think.
This does not pinpoint one gene to anorexia. University of Pittsburghs Walter Kaye, MD uses
the following comparison to explain the significance of the finding, If trying to identify the
responsible gene is like trying to find a person in the world, then we may have located the city
the person lives in. It gives you some clue that youre in the right area. These findings are
nowhere near complete but do provide a significant look into not only causes but possible
treatments. The significance of these findings is so important not only in the scientific field, but
also in the personal aspect of treatment, when I was going through treatment I always felt like I
was the one to blame for my illness. If I had known that my illness was caused by more than my
desire to be thin, obsessive and addictive personality, and a flaw in my brain chemistry I would
have felt much better going through the process of recovery. I believe that those struggling
knowing that there are biological factors involved in the reason for your development of an
eating disorder could have significant affect on moral and improve attitudes.
Results from genome-wide scans based on families with two or more members having an
eating disorder revealed linkage on chromosomes on 1, 3, and 4 for anorexia nervosa as well as
10p for bulimia nervosa. After four studies there was a significant association detected between
the -1438A allele of HTR2A and anorexia nervosa. There were four association studies
comparing the frequency of the SLC64A*S allele in anorexia nervosa against the healthy

Taylor Huffman

Huffman 5

Professor Malcom Campbell


English 1103
04/06/2016
controls which resulted in showings that this allele is a moderate yet significant risk factor.
Results from yet another study show that the *LA allele or a DNA variant in linkage
disequilibrium with it, doubles the risk for developing restricting anorexia nervosa (Hinney,
Friedel, Remschmidt, & Hebebrand). An international collaborative group called The Price
Foundation Collaborative Group completed a collection of a large study group of patients with
anorexia nervosa and affected relatives for anorexia nervosa. All of the 196 index patients,
mostly of Caucasian origin, met the DSM-IV criteria for anorexia nervosa; all 237 affected
relatives met the DSM-IV criteria for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or eating disorders not
otherwise specified (Hinney, Friedel, Remschmidt, & Hebebrand). For both anorexia nervosa
and bulimia nervosa heritability estimates of about 70% have repeatedly been derived from
family based studies. All of these statistics named above just prove what the studies are
suggesting, that there is a significant link between genetics and eating disorders.
The studies I have named above prove that the link between genetics and eating disorders
is there. Many of the studies on this topic are completed with families that have two or more
members who have struggled with an eating disorder which in and of itself is evidence that there
is a genetic link and that eating disorders are hereditary. Having research find that there is in fact
a genetic link to disordered eating is significant in many ways; it can help pave the way for new
forms of treatment, it can help find out who is predisposed to these illnesses, and it can help
those affected know that this disease is not a choice, and that there is a biological aspect to the
illness. Being a woman who has struggled with anorexia nervosa for many years this information

Taylor Huffman

Huffman 6

Professor Malcom Campbell


English 1103
04/06/2016
and these genetic findings personally help me because I will know that when I have children they
will be predisposed to the illness and I will be able to do more to encourage healthy eating and
body image.

Huffman 7

Taylor Huffman
Professor Malcom Campbell
English 1103
04/06/2016
Works Cited
Bidwell, Allie. "Researchers Find Genes Linked to High Risk of Eating Disorders."
US News. U.S. News & World Report, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.

DeAngelis, Tori. "A Genetic Link to Anorexia." American Psychological Association. N.p.,
Mar. 2002. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
"Eating Disorders: About More Than Food." NIMH RSS. N.p., 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.
"Eating Disorder Statistics & Research." Eating Disorder Hope RSS. EatingDisorderHope.com,
n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
Hinney, Anke, Susann Friedel, Helmut Remschmidt, and Johannes Hebebrand. "Genetic Risk
Factors in Eating Disorders." American Journal of Pharmacogenomics. 4.4 (2004):
209-223. Print.
Kaye, Walter, MD. "Mortality and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association."
Mortality and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association.
National

Eating Disorder Association, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2016.

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