On Jul 25, 9:39 pm, Debs <YOURFOOTdebs02...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> If you read what I said, a great number of the
> > people who are overweight are that way because they have been molested
> > or abused.
>
> Are you sure about this? Do you have any references? I am sure it
> happens sometimes but most??
****WOMEN who have been severely sexually abused as children are twice
as likely to be overweight by age 21 than their peers, a study has
found.
But more research is needed to understand why.
University of Queensland researchers studied more than 2500 men and
women born at Brisbane's Mater Hospital between 1981 and 1983.
They found women who experienced penetrative sexual abuse before the
age of 16 (7.9 per cent of respondents) had a higher body mass index,
on average, as young adults than other females in the study. But the
link did not hold for men who had been similarly abused (7.5 per cent
of respondents).
"The gender differences may reflect differences between women and men
in the relationship between psychological trauma and body image," lead
researcher Abdullah Al Mamun said.
Dr Mamun, a public health researcher, said the study highlighted the
need for health professionals to be aware of the physical implications
of childhood sexual abuse in women, not just the mental health ones.
He said reasons theorised for the link between sexual trauma and
obesity included the possibility abused women purposely changed their
lifestyles to increase weight as a protective measure against further
abuse, believing the excess kilograms made them less attractive.
"It has also been suggested that 'comfort eating' may be an adaptive
function after childhood sexual abuse," the researchers wrote in the
journal Obesity.
Another hypothesis is that hormonal responses to increased levels of
stress resulting from childhood sexual abuse may result directly in
obesity.
Dr Mamun said more research was needed to explore the possible
mechanisms for the link.
==========================================
Williamson DF, Thompson TJ, Anda RF, Dietz WH, Felitti V.
Division of Diabetes Translation, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion, Atlanta, Georgia 30341-2717, USA. drw1@cdc.gov
BACKGROUND: Little is known about childhood factors and adult obesity.
A previous study found a strong association between childhood neglect
and obesity in young adults. OBJECTIVE: To estimate associations
between self-reported abuse in childhood (sexual, verbal, fear of
physical abuse and physical) adult body weight, and risk of obesity.
DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study with surveys during 1995-1997.
PATIENTS: A total of 13,177 members of California health maintenance
organization aged 19-92 y. MEASUREMENTS: Body weight measured during
clinical examination, followed by mailed survey to recall experiences
during first 18 y of life. Estimates adjusted for adult demographic
factors and health practices, and characteristics of the childhood
household. RESULTS: Some 66% of participants reported one or more type
of abuse. Physical abuse and verbal abuse were most strongly
associated with body weight and obesity. Compared with no physical
abuse (55%), being 'often hit and injured' (2.5%) had a 4.0 kg (95%
confidence interval: 2.4-5.6 kg) higher weight and a 1.4 (1.2-1.6)
relative risk (RR) of body mass index (BMI) > or = 30. Compared with
no verbal abuse (53%), being 'often verbally abused' (9.5%) had an RR
of 1.9 (1.3-2.7) for BMI > or = 40. The abuse associations were not
mutually independent, however, because the abuse types strongly co-
occurred. Obesity risk increased with number and severity of each type
of abuse. The population attributable fraction for 'any mention' of
abuse (67%) was 8% (3.4-12.3%) for BMI > or = 30 and 17.3%
(-1.0-32.4%) for BMI > or = 40. CONCLUSIONS: Abuse in childhood is
associated with adult obesity. If causal, preventing child abuse may
modestly decrease adult obesity. Treatment of obese adults abused as
children may benefit from identification of mechanisms that lead to
maintenance of adult obesity.
==================================================
Obesity, Childhood Sex Abuse Show Strong Link
Aaron Levin
An association between sexual abuse and later obesity has been
suspected for years. A new prospective study illuminates the extent of
such a connection.
Girls who were sexually abused are more likely to become obese than
those who were not abused, but that difference does not show up until
early adulthood, according to a report in the July Pediatrics.
Clinicians should not only treat young victims of abuse but should
maintain a close watch on increasing body mass index (BMI) at least
into their patients' early 20s, said the researchers.
However, they do not argue that there is a causal link between sexual
abuse and obesity or that obesity is an inevitable outcome of abuse.
"We simply wish to underscore the need for systematic study of the
mechanistic and mediating processes that would help to explain the
connection between childhood abuse and late obesity," wrote Jennie
Noll, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at the Cincinnati
Children's Medical Center and the Department of Pediatrics at the
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and colleagues.
The researchers studied 84 sexually abused female subjects, aged 6
through 16, who had been referred by child protective services in the
Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Median age at onset of abuse was
7.8 years.
These subjects were compared with 89 never-abused female subjects
recruited from the same neighborhoods and matched for demographic
factors.
The study began in 1987, and subjects were assessed at six time
points, ending in 2006. Obesity status was determined for three stages
of development: childhood/early adolescence (ages 6 to 14); middle to
late adolescence (ages 15 to 19); and young adulthood (ages 20 to 27).
Twelve abused girls and 10 comparison subjects who were obese at
baseline were eliminated from analysis.
In childhood or adolescence, obesity rates between the two groups were
not significantly different, but in their 20s, 42 percent of the
abused and 28 percent of the comparison subjects were obese (defined
as BMI of 30 or higher after age 20). Thus, while obesity rates at
about age 11, at baseline, were similar, by mean age 24, women with
documented histories of sexual abuse were more than twice as likely to
be obese as their non-abused peers.
"These results provide some of the first prospective evidence that
childhood sexual abuse may place female individuals at inordinately
high risk for developing and maintaining obesity," the researchers
said. Previous studies have retrospectively found correlations between
abuse and later obesity but this is the first such prospective study,
they noted.
It is unlikely that the general rise in the prevalence of obesity in
the United States over the last several decades might account for the
difference, Noll told Psychiatric News. "The comparison group follows
the CDC's [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's] growth
trajectory closely."
She was careful not to draw an oversimplified connection between the
two conditions. There might be a biological component, in that abuse
is known to dysregulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, whose
hormones are involved in fat deposition and metabolism.
However, the nexus of obesity and abuse does not occur in a vacuum. A
family culture of dysfunction may be expressed in overeating, she
said: "The connections should be examined further."
Abuse also is a form of control by adults over the child victims, and
overeating may be a way for abused children to gain some control of
their own, she said. Others have argued that being overweight is a way
to make oneself unattractive and ward off undesired attention.
Noll rejects any idea that there is a one-to-one relationship between
obesity and child abuse.
"But if practitioners know of a history of sexual abuse, they should
be cognizant of possible problems, especially at important
developmental milestones," she said. Those milestones might include a
first adult relationship, marriage, childbirth, or when their own
children reach the same age at which they were abused. Abused children
don't need to be monitored continuously, but these life stressors may
lead to behaviors such as drinking, smoking, drug use, or promiscuity
that have serious health consequences.
Pediatricians treating abused girls should closely track BMI changes
through development and intervene as necessary, the researchers
suggested.
"Childhood-abuse treatment extending beyond the acute phases of
recovery or that is revisited throughout development may improve
health outcomes for abuse survivors," they said.
"Obesity Risk for Female Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A
Prospective Study" is posted at <http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/
cgi/content/full/120/1/e61>.
===================================
http://nospank.net/stevens.htm
==================================
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v9/n5/full/oby200140a.html
===================================
> Alcoholism is mostly genetic, passed on through family
> > members, as is morbid obesity.
>
> Again, are you sure? Positive it's not environment??
The tendency to seek alcohol is at least partly genetic. The
environment also contributes, but there is a definitive correlation,
confirmed by testing, that there is a genetic component involved in
the equation.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0847/is_n4_v15/ai_12754631
"We investigated whether and to what degree genetic and environmental
contributions overlap among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
alcohol dependence (AD) and drug dependence (DD). Subjects were 3304
monozygotic and dizygotic male–male twin pair members of the Vietnam
Era Twin Registry who participated in 1992 telephone administration of
the Diagnostic Interview Schedule Version 3 Revised (DIS-3R). Genetic
model fitting was performed to estimate the magnitude of genetic and
environmental contributions to the lifetime co-occurrence of DSM-III-R
PTSD, AD and DD. The liability for PTSD was partially due to a 15.3%
genetic contribution common to AD and DD and 20.0% genetic
contribution specific to PTSD. Risk for AD was partially due to a
55.7% genetic contribution common to PTSD and DD. Genetic influences
common to PTSD and AD accounted for 25.2% of the total risk for DD.
Specific family environmental influence accounted for 33.9% of the
total variance in risk for DD. Remaining variance for all three
disorders was due to unique environmental factors both common and
specific to each phenotype. These results suggest that PTSD, AD and DD
each have etiologically distinct components and also have significant
genetic and unique environmental contributions in common." (http://
linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0376871600001277)
***The research reveals that a subject's brain with low beta-endorphin
levels becomes accustomed to the presence of an exogenous surplus,
diminishing its own supply and triggering dependence on an external
source--in this case, alcohol.
According to a study by the research group "Alcoholism and drug
addiction", of the University of Granada, although there are no
specific reasons to become alcoholic, many social, family,
environmental, and genetic factors may contribute to its development.
Thanks to this study, researchers have shown that the lack of
endorphin is hereditary, and thus that there is a genetic
predisposition to become addicted to alcohol.
Beta-endorphin is a kind of "morphine" released by the brain in
response to several situations, such as pain. In this way, beta-
endorphins can be considered "endogenous analgesics" to numb or dull
pains.
Researchers have focused on the low beta-endorphin levels in chronic
alcohol abusers. According to José Rico Irles , professor of Medicine
of the UGR, and head of the research group, this low beta-endorphin
level determines whether someone may become an alcoholic. When a
subjects' brain with low beta-endorphin levels gets used to the
presence of an exogenous surplus, then, when its own production stops,
a dependence starts on the external source: alcohol. (http://www.news-
medical.net/?id=33701)***
trisha
aka_velcro
ReaderRabbit
