Originally published February 16 2006
Italian study pinpoints possible origin of eating disorders
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Angela Favaro, from the University of Padua, led a study that found a mother's complications during pregnancy, including diabetes, anemia and placental infarction, could contribute to her children having eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
COMPLICATIONS in mothers during and immediately after pregnancy could lead to their children suffering eating disorders, researchers said yesterday.
A study identified a list of early complications linked to anorexia and bulimia in later life.
Specifically, conditions such as diabetes, anaemia and placental infarction - death of part of the placenta - in the mother increased a child's risk of developing anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia was also associated with heart problems, low body temperature, tremors and low response to stimuli in newborns.
Placental infarction, poor responses, early difficulties with eating, shorter than average length at birth, and low birth weight were linked to an increased risk of bulimia nervosa.
Both eating disorders are believed to be caused by a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors.
Researchers led by Dr Angela Favaro, from the University of Padua, in Italy, studied 114 women with anorexia, 73 with bulimia, and a control group of 554 with neither condition.
Eating disorder data was studied alongside information about obstetric complications obtained from hospital records.
The researchers found that the number of complications affected the age at which children developed anorexia.
"This type of relationship is considered evidence of a causal link and would indicate that an impairment in neurodevelopment could be implicated in the pathogenesis of anorexia nervosa," they wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Other studies have suggested links between a lack of oxygen and nutrients in the womb and other psychiatric disorders.
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