This comment came from Dr. Kathleen Mammel, Chief Adolescent Pediatrician at Beaumont Hospital and Medical Director at Hough Center for Eating Disorders in Michigan. Dr. Mammel's work appeared this week in a local high school newspaper, the Seaholm Highlander.
Dr. Mammel believes that genetics play a primary role in determining whether an individual will develop an eating disorder; however, she also emphasized the influence of environmental factors and life events in determining where, when, and if the genetic disposition for disordered eating may surface in any given person. Dr. Mammel made the following analogy:
"It's almost like building a gun, loading a gun and pulling the trigger. ... The building of the gun involves genetics, the loading is the environmental factors like being in an area where appearance and image are over-valued, and pulling the trigger involves a particular incident like starting a diet or you have a loss, someone close to you becomes ill or dies, you move away, or even just starting high school."
Dr. Mammel also commented that eating disorders are stress-related and anyone who has a particularly hard time managing stress may be vulnerable to an eating disorder. She cautioned that it is impossible to tell for a particular individual what event may trigger a disorder.
(Source: seaholmhighlander.com)
Posted By: jgarcia