Passing on an eating disorder | Mental Health Hub

Claire Vickery was not surprised when scientists announced that eating disorders have a genetic link, because she and her two daughters suffered from the illness.

Eating disorders specialist Professor Howard Steiger, of McGill University in Montreal, told a conference in Adelaide last week that new discoveries in epigenetics show mothers pass a genetic predisposition to eating disorders to their children.

?The science of epigenetics is relatively new,? he said at the National Eating Disorders Collaboration National Workshop. ?Epigenetics helps explain how adverse development, stress, malnutrition and other influences can affect development of mental-health problems ? including eating disorders.?

Ms Vickery, 56, said she had bulimia from the ages of 16 to 29. ?I?m sure I?m carrying the gene.?

However, the president of the Australian and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders, Dr Anthea Fursland, said that genes alone would not result in a child developing an eating disorder. ?Genetic influences do play a part but they will not cause an eating disorder on their own,? she said. ?Eating disorders arise as result of a combination of factors but the common factor in every case is dieting.?

Ms Vickery?s two daughters, Anna and Laura, both had eating disorders when they were younger. They have all recovered but Ms Vickery?s experience led her to set up the Butterfly Foundation, which encourages prevention, treatment and support of those affected by eating disorders.

Professor Steiger said epigenetics would play a large role in understanding eating disorders. ?If eating disorders are about anything, they?re about the ways in which environments switch on hereditary vulnerabilities,? he said.

?It will give us a better understanding how it is that some people develop an eating disorder. It?s not due to moral weakness or character flaws, but real susceptibilities, for which we can find real physical evidence.?

By identifying the genes, he hopes to develop a test and even medication.

One of Ms Vickery?s daughters, Anna Spraggett, who is 33 and has three children, said she was excited about the discovery. ?It?s a positive step forward to finding a cure and treatment,? she said.

While she thinks that environmental factors play a part, Ms Vickery said if parents were aware their children were susceptible, they could be mindful of stressful triggers.

?This is not about guilt for mothers,? she said. ?But if there was a take-home message, it?s to choose your words with children ? no fat talk in the household ? or ever, in fact.?

with Rachel Browne

Article source: http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/national/national/general/passing-on-an-eating-disorder/2654870.aspx

Source: http://www.mhhub.com/archives/21344

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