April 27, 2016.
Anorexia is not only a shameful disease for those, mainly children, young girls and women, who suffer from it, but also fatal. It is the main cause of death induced by mental illness …. Which might not be totally one!
Traces of bacterial infection found in a majority of anorexics
English researchers have just published a study in the journal Medical Hypotheses, in which they hypothesize that bacterial infections could trigger not only anorexia, but also other pathologies, such as chronic fatigue or hyper irritability. They envision that the immune system of people battling an infection can turn, once the infection is fought, against the body, as if there was still a fight. The antibodies created in numbers to fight the infection would then attack the nerve cells of their host, as if they had been deregulated, or deprogrammed from their initial mission.
10 times more women affected by these symptoms
The hypothesis of a deregulation of the immune system is reinforced by the fact that ten times more women are affected by these diseases, anorexia, chronic fatigue or hyper irritability. The female immune system, being different from that of men, because it is prepared for motherhood, is also more likely to go wrong.
For the moment, however, all this remains only a hypothesis, which has not been confirmed by experiments.. British researchers now want to try to isolate the responsible bacteria or bacteria, to confirm their theory. This research is expected to take a year. If successful, they plan to be able to treat these pathologies, in particular by blood transfusions intended to eliminate the antibodies responsible for attacking the nerve cells of patients.
Read also: Medical treatments for eating disorders
