Anorexia Nervosa And Its Effect On The Brain

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which the individual has reached a body weight that is abnormally low, has created a distorted view of their own body weight and deeply fears gaining any weight at all. Risk factors for the disorder include females, athletes, dancers and models, experiencing media and socio-cultural influences, drastic life transitions and being in the teenage years. Anorexia nervosa is a disorder that, if not noted and attended to with urgency, can quickly put the individual in a downward spiral, leading to negative consequences and ultimately, if not treated, death. One of the biggest effects that the disorder has is on the brain, the most powerful organ in the human body.
Not consuming the adequate amount of energy

In 2014 a study was done on rats to assess how anorexia nervosa, in this case activity-based anorexia (ABA), changed the structure of the neurons within the brain. It was found that in the dorsal hippocampus of the brain, where spatial learning and reasoning occur, both the dendritic length and total number of dendrite branches were lower than in that of the controlled group of rats. Because nerves are responsible for sending all of the messages to and from the brain, the dendritic damage in the dorsal region of the hippocampus causes messages to be at a slower pace and eventually may not be sent at all. In the ventral part of the hippocampus, where anxiety is primarily regulated, there was an increased branching of the dendrites in the rats experiencing activity-based anorexia. (Aoki et

The brain controls how well every other system in the body functions. If there is an issue occurring in the brain that will translate throughout the rest of the body, similar to the domino effect. Anorexia nervosa causes less blood to circulate to certain regions of the brain, reducing the function of that region. This in itself can lead to many other serious issues since the brain is essentially the control center of the human body. Without proper nutrients and amounts of those nutrients, brain matter volume will decrease, as the studies discussed above showed. Along with the brain matter, the dendritic branches decrease in length and numbers. The loss of these connections greatly alters how the brain can operate even through daily functions. Thus stressing the importance of treating those with anorexia nervosa and working to prevent its