Anorexia is one of the psychological disorders more worrisome, as it can lead to very serious health problems and even death if not treated on time.
Psychological help is essential for these patients to recover; but unfortunately sometimes it doesn’t seem enough so some scientists think there might be hidden causes foreign to the brain on which there is no remedy, so it is very difficult to fully remit the disease.
For this reason, some of these researchers, belonging to the Morecambe Bay and Lancaster Universities, have elaborated a hypothesis; which, honoring its name, has been published in the magazine Medical Hypotheses and according to which the responsible for most of the symptoms associated with anorexia could be an autoimmune disorder associated with a bacterial infection.
What does anorexia consist of?
We often tend to confuse anorexia and bulimia when there really are two eating disorders with different symptomatology and, generally, due to different causes.
Anorexia alone refers to a symptom consisting of lack of appetite, usually transitory, which could be associated with other diseases.
When what we mean is the psychological disorder, we are talking about anorexia nervosa, a disease characterized by refusal of food due to the obsessive fear of gaining weight. Therefore, these patients usually have an altered perception of reality, since for them their normal weight standards They are very far from normal and, furthermore, they are often unable to perceive that they have a problem.
On the other hand, these people often have other symptoms that have little to do with common mental disorders, such as chronic fatigue or irritable bowel syndrome. These types of symptoms, in addition, make the lack of appetite even more serious, since when the patient tries to eat he feels bad and ends up refusing food.
Could it be anorexia caused by bacteria?
The first step for these patients to recover is to make them see that they have a problem and help them regain their normal perception of reality, but how could their brain come up with such altered standards of normality? We normally blame the advertising, which she often sells to skeleton models as the prototype of unattainable beauty that everyone should try to reach.
However, although it is clear that this influences, especially in stages such as adolescence in which brain connections They are finishing settling and what we see greatly influences what we think we should be, the possibility of other causes should not be ruled out.
And, of course, the hypothesis that concerns us today is not far-fetched. According to these scientists, anorexia could be the consequence of somebacterial infection followed by a abnormal response of the immune system.
In this way, when the patient’s organism tries to defend itself against the pathogen, it could become confused and attack the own nerve cells. This theory could explain many of the characteristics of anorexia nervosa.
What characteristics of anorexia would explain this hypothesis?
On the one hand, it would explain why the great majority of affected people are women, since the female sex is also predominant in the rest of cases of autoimmune diseases.
On the other hand, the destruction of neurons in the limbic system (area of the brain associated with emotions) will explain the extreme emotions of these patients, who usually feel a irrational fear to the development of many daily habits and, especially, to food. Furthermore, the neuronal degeneration It could also be the answer to the abnormal perception of reality that we mentioned earlier.
Finally, it can also be related to irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue, since, in the same way, they are more common in women than in men.
All the pieces of the puzzle seem to fit, but the experimental part, which will be carried out with laboratory animals in which they will try to check if there is an excess of antibodies associated with disorders such as anorexia or irritable bowel syndrome. They intend to start the tests in the summer and have some kind of result for end of year.
Hopefully the results are positive and soon we will have a cure aimed at the real origin of the disease. Until then, we must not disregard psychological help and we must be alert to the possible presence of these symptoms in the people around us, especially in adolescents. Often, these disorders are not given due importance and are associated with passing nonsense of the age, but they can be very dangerous and it is very important to detect them early. As always, there is no need to be afraid, but we must be cautious.
