Dopamine in a chemical that is found in the brain and it is involved in weight and feeding behaviors. Recovering anorexics show an increase in dopamine levels. Also in recovering anorexics, there has been an abnormal amount of Serotonin levels. Dopamine and Serotonin are closely tied to appetite, mood, and impulse control which are all altered when an eating disorder is present (Brain 1).
Another biological factor is heredity. Studies have been done to show if eating disorders are caused by genes. Stephanie Zerwas and Cynthis Bulik conducted a study on a pair of Caucasian, female twins to see if their family history had an effect on them.
The twins had almost identical genes so if an eating disorder affected one then it should affect the other is heredity effected the cause of eating disorders. They found out that there is a substantial amount of hereditary influence on them. Another study concluded that 50% of eating disorders are triggered by a person’s genes (Are 1).
social media is a huge influence on what people think is “beautiful. ” Small, tiny, stick-skinny girls are what media is making people believe to be what they should look like. Teenagers and young girls are watching movie stars, singers, and models portray the image of an “Ideal” body image to be small.
The Term Paper on Cause of eating disorders
Eating disorders are not a fad diet or an experiment to lose weight, but they are serious complex disorders that can take many years to recover from. Eating disorders affect five percent of women and one percent of men in the United States. The South Carolina Mental Health Department reports that five to ten percent of girls with eating disorders will die within ten years of having the disease. ...
Thing such as Facebook and Pinterest increase peoples self-conscious levels to the point of an eating disorder. Social Media has grown rapidly over the course of the last ten years, and it still continues to grow bigger. It has begun to reach kids as young as 5 years old. If a young 5 year old girl grows up seeing nothing but stick-skinny “role models,” then what will she think of when she is 15 years old and isn’t as skinny as these role models. She won’t recognize that having curves isn’t a bad thing and not everybody can be small because that is all that she has grown up with.
There are multiple causes of eating disorders. Biological factors and social media are just a few examples of how a person can develop an eating disorder. There are many ways to prevent eating disorders but if you do not get rid of the causes then the effect will never go away. Works Cited “Are Eating Disorders Heritable? ” Pyschology Today. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Ph. D. , n. d. Web. 13 May 2013. “Brain Chemical May Be Key in Eating Disorders. ” WebMD. Salynn Boyles, n. d. Web. 13 May 2013. National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders Inc. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 May 2013.
