Eating disorders can be caused by various factors, includingfamily and cultural influences and also some emotional and personalityproblems. For many people suffering from eating disorders it can be said thatgenetic predisposition and certain biologic factors contributed or caused theireating problem.
Family Influence on Eating
Family can be a triggering factor or responsible for eatingdisorders in some people. There were various studies about these influences andthey concluded that attitude and behavior of our parents, problems with addictions,obesity and history of abuse may seriously affect people and lead to differenteating disorders.
Poor parenting may be the cause of very young girls tryingto lose some weight. If a mother suffers from eating disorder there areincreased chances it will happen to her young daughter as well. Same studiesconcluded that fathers criticizing the weight of their sons might provokebingeing and purging.
People who have an addict or obese member of a family arealso prone to eating disorders, as well as those whose close relatives aresuffering from emotional disorders. Alcoholism abuse in parents has been associatedwith increased risk of bulimia and anorexia in children. Obese parents arelikely to have overweight kids, even during their childhood age. Bulimia patientsare often discovered to have parents suffering from psychiatric disorders andthat fact may have contributed to the development of their eating problem.
History of sexual abuse is also very prominent in patientssuffering from bulimia. Statistic data reveals that 35% of women diagnosed withbulimia have experienced sexual abuse.
Eating and Culture Pressures
Many people of the Western world are found to eat much morethan they actually need. For that reason, obesity has become global problem andit affects great deal of people living in so-called developed countries. They eattoo much, lead sedentary lives and don’t exercise.
Today’s standards represent thinness as the role model foreveryone. People should be thin, beautiful and young forever according to the media.They also promote anorexic girls as sexually desirable models and at the sametime heavily advertise junk food. As the response to these facts people arefaced either with obesity or some other eating disorders.
Other Factors for Eating Disorders
Genetic factors have been found to play a role in eatingdisorders. Some scientists identified chromosomes responsible for development ofanorexia and bulimia. There are also researches which found out theconnection of serotonin and BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) levelswith increased chance for development of eating disorders.
Hormonal abnormalities of the thyroid gland and limbicsystem in the brain are also found out to be common in people suffering fromeating disorders.
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