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> On Jul 25, 9:39 pm, Debs <YOURFOOTdebs02...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> ****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
>
> ===================================
>
>
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>