Eating disorders are common in many people, while the causes of the disorders are still unclear to medical professionals. Many options have been examined and studied to determine if there are some major health links to eating disorders and how they can be treated. This includes binge disorders such as binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa, which both include eating large amounts of food within short periods of time. Doctors have studied to find out whether there is a binge eating hormone that leads people to have strong food cravings and hunger.
The Link Between Testosterone and Binge Eating Disorders
A study done in 2007, by Dr. Sabine Naessén at the Department of Woman and Child Health at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, showed that there is a probable link between binge eating disorders, such as bulimia nervosa, and high levels of testosterone. The study was performed on bulmic women, with the results showing up to 30 percent of the women having abnormally high levels of testosterone. The women with high levels of testosterone were also shown to have insufficient levels of oestrogen, the female sex hormone.
Bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder are eating disorders marked by eating large amounts of food within short periods of time, often until a feeling of uncomfortable fullness is reach. In bulimia, the food is then purged, while people with binge eating disorder do not purge their body of food. High levels of testosterone, a male sex hormone, have been determined to cause strong feelings of hunger and cravings for fatty foods. This explains why many women with high levels of testorone struggle with binge eating disorder or bulimia nervosa.
In the study, the women were treated with hormone therapy through oral contraceptives containing estrogen to see if it would help with the eating disorders. Many of the women had reduced hunger and food cravings within three months of treatment. Three of the women in the study even stated that the hormones cured their eating disorders completely. This suggests that hormone therapy may be an alternative method for treating binge eating disorders in women.
The studies show that there very well may be a clear link between high levels of male hormones like testosterone and eating disorders like bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. The binge eating hormone, testosterone, showed up in high levels in many of the women, making doctors consider that female hormonal therapy using estrogen may be an effective way to treat binge eating disorders. While not currently a common method for treating eating disorders, women struggling with binge eating should seek out hormonal birth control with their family doctor to decide if it is an effective way to control urges to binge.
Sources:
Medical News Today: Bulimia Linked to Sex Hormone Imbalance(accessed December 22, 2010).
Jayde M. Nichols - Jayde Nichols had a love of writing for many years before beginning to write articles online in 2010. Nichols writes articles for a number ...
Join the Conversation