Eating Disorders Research Paper

Scientifically, it has been proven that one should not make long-term decisions while hungry. Students at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden studied whether or not it is smart to make a decision when you are ravenous. A hormone that is made in the gastrointestinal tract, called ghrelin enhanced this study. Ghrelin is released when your body is searching for food as energy. When you are no longer hungry, the manufacturing of ghrelin halts. Ghrelin is also associated with drug and alcohol intake. Tests were developed to demonstrate how this happens through living organisms, the researchers at the University of Gothenburg examined rats. Although rats are not humans, they can display human-like behaviors. When an extra amount of ghrelin was inserted into the rat, they went against their regular impulses. They would gain a

) Due to hypothalamus stimulation, Laila will feel hungry. Two regions of hypothalamus will contribute towards the hunger of Laila, which are the lateral and paraventricular hypothalamus. These regions have been correlated with receptors for certain chemical messengers that signal hunger, especially ghrelin and leptin. Lateral Hypothalamus is the region of the brain associated with hunger recognition. Laila’s body will recognize hunger due to the stimulation of lateral hypothalamus (lateral nuclei). Laila’s paraventricular hypothalamus will regulate her hunger. The stomach and the hypothalamus produce the hormone ghrelin. Laila’s levels of ghrelin will increase which will signal the body of hunger due to the receptors of hypothalamus. Laila knows that it is time to eat because she can feel her stomach growling through her interceptors. After the smell of the pizza was sent to the hypothalamus,

c. The research was led by the two experts mentioned earlier Jenny Tong and Matthias Tschöp. The article was “reprinted from materials provided by University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.” This study was done because it “could open up new avenues connecting metabolic control, chemo-sensation and behavioral neuroscience research.” The assumptions made about the audience reading this is that the audience should know about the ghrelin hormone, and how the sense of smell and hunger play a role in food. The agenda that is served by the article is to bring about the knowledge of how ghrelin is involved with our ability to locate and identify the foods.

Real beauty is found in a person's heart, not in their appearance, but the media rarely portrays this though. Most magazines and television shows feature only excessively thin people. Unfortunately, this causes teenagers whose bodies don't match those same proportions to look at their selves with hatred. Every lump and bulge becomes despised, and soon, they have a full-blown eating disorder.

Ghrelin, commonly referred to as the “hunger hormone,” is a 28-amino acid peptide that has many important roles in human digestion including regulation of growth hormone release, enhancement of appetite, and increase of food intake (1). This gut-derived peptide could play an extremely important role in the altered eating behaviors of patients with eating disorders. Increased fasting plasma ghrelin levels have been consistently reported in underweight patients with anorexia nervosa. Circulating levels of this hormone have also been found to be enhanced in symptomatic bulimic patients, while also being blunted in response to balanced meals (4).

Topic: What is causing young adults and teens to develop eating disorders and how can we help them?

Ghrelin is the first hormone to be identified that increases feeding when administered peripherally. All of the other known orexigenic peptide transmitters such as neuropeptide Y, orexin, agoutirelated peptide (AGRP), melanocortin-concentrating hormone, and galanin stimulate feeding only when administered into the brain. The observations that circulating ghrelin levels surge suddenly before a meal and fall sharply after a meal, suggest that ghrelin serves as a signal for initiation of feeding. Interestingly, ghrelin increases the number but not the size of meals. However, ghrelin does not only play a role in regulating short-term feeding, but it also regulates body weight over the long-term (Cummings et al.,

The neurochemical changes that take place when restricting food and binging are mirrored by those with addiction to drugs and alcohol. A dysfunction hypothalamus is an additional part of the brain that is involved in controlling appetite and eating patterns. The hypothalamus is thought of as the on and off switch for producing and suppressing feelings of hunger (Wadden et. al, 2004). Research demonstrates that those given MRI’s show abnormal activity in both the ventromedial hypothalamus and the lateral hypothalamus (Cash & Smolak, 2011). Both parts work together to create the homeostasis one’s appetite. Those diagnosed with anorexia nervosa may have an abnormal activity in the lateral hypothalamus that creates a sense of hunger. Whereas

The hypothalamus plays a large role in eating. The lateral hypothalamus is involved in turning on eating. Electrical stimulation to the area will cause eating to begin. If a lesion is produced in this area, aphagia will occur to the individual or animal. This means that the animal will stop eating completely. It removes and destroys the set point of eating. The medial hypothalamus is involved in turning off eating in individuals or animals. If the area is electrically stimulated, eating will be turned off. Lesions in this area produce hyperphagia. This causes non-stop eating by the animal. This will lead to excessive weight gain. Other factors control eating as well.

What you want to eat or why, is a combination between what you know and your energy expenditure. The hypothalamus, amygdala, and the hippocampus all play their part. The hypothalamus is going to play a factor when it comes to how hungry you are. This is because this part of the brain is responsible for determining you energy expenditure and creating homeostasis. The latter part of the equation is the amygdala and the hippocampus working in tandem to determine whether

Body weight, food intake and metabolism are regulated by the hypothalamus that processes central and peripheral signals. Within the hypothalamus, neurons residing in the ARC (arcuate nucleus) – PVN (paraventricular) –PF/LH (perifornical/lateral hypothalamus) axis communicate with each other and are subjected to the influence of several peripheral factors, including leptin and insulin (Davis et al. 2010). The action of these hormones on food intake occurs in part by convergence on a specific set of neurons within the ARC (Elmquist et al. 1998, Abizaid & Horvath 2008) that contains neuronal populations expressing orexigenic neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related peptide (AgRP) and the anorectic pro- opiomelanocortin (POMC). NPY synthesis and secretion have been found

scared to eat because you don’t want to gain weight or want to fit in. A chemical in the brain blocks an

Eating disorders is a mental disorder of eating habits that affect a person’s mental and physical health. There are different kinds of disorders, such as, binge eating is when you eat large amounts of food. Anorexia Nervosa is lost if appetite, while Bulimia you eat all the time. Pica is when you are hungry for stuff that is largely non-nutritive. Rumination disorder which usually happens as a child, but brings up food and re-chews the digested food that has already been eaten. Finally the Avoidant/Restrictive food intake disorder is the struggling of eating food.

b. The causing of an eating disorders aren't entirely clear. However, a combination of psychological, genetic, social, and family factors are thought to be involved. People with anorexia or bulimia often have an intense fear of gaining weight or being overweight and think they look bigger than they actually are.

Many people believe that liking and disliking food involves the taste of the food itself and the effect it has on our mouths, however, this is not the case. The body part responsible for controlling our desire and enjoyment of food is, in fact, our brains. More specifically, it is controlled by a small clump of neurons in the middle of the brain, part of the brain's parietal lobe. These neurons stimulate our fondness for different foods by rewarding us with a small feeling of joy when we eat certain foods. They trigger a circuit of hotspots in our brain that releases neurochemical signals of pleasure, including opioids, orexins, and endocannabinoids. This amplifies the feeling of pleasure and plays a key part in our love for certain foods.