Families do not cause anorexia nervosa

Eating disorders researchers counter Bundchen's blunder

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 22 -- Misstatements and ignorance claiming that families "cause" eating disorders is like blaming parents for diabetes or asthma or cancer says an international group of eating disorders researchers. Recent damaging statements by fashion model Gisele Bundchen stating that unsupportive families cause anorexia nervosa only perpetuate misconceptions and further stigmatize eating disorders. Contrary to her claim, there is no scientific evidence that families cause anorexia nervosa. In fact, the researchers are finding that anorexia nervosa is far more complex than simply wanting to be slim to achieve some fashionable slender ideal. The data show that anorexia nervosa has a strong genetic component that may be the root cause of this illness.

"An uninformed opinion such as Bundchen's causes harm on a number of levels. By contributing to the stigma, it drives sufferers underground and creates obstacles to seeking help. It damages attempts at advocacy and hurts parents who are desperately fighting for their child's recovery," said Allan S. Kaplan, M.D., Loretta Anne Rogers Chair in Eating Disorders at the University of Toronto. "Such thinking also misinforms third party payors who may not want to pay for the treatment of these biologically-based illnesses if they think its primary cause is family dysfunction."

Dr. Kaplan is a member of the international group of researchers attempting to find which genes contribute to anorexia nervosa through a National Institute of Mental Health-funded study of families with a history of anorexia nervosa. The current study, which is being conducted at 10 sites across the world, hopes to further clarify which genes play a role in anorexia nervosa. The study builds on data from ten years of groundbreaking research on the genetics of eating disorders sponsored by the Price Foundation.

"We often hear that societal pressures to be thin cause many young women and men to develop an eating disorder. Many individuals in our culture, for a number of reasons, are concerned with their weight and diet. Yet less than half of 1 percent of all women develop anorexia nervosa, which indicates to us that societal pressure alone isn't enough to cause someone to develop this disease," said Walter H. Kaye, M.D., professor of psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "Our research has found that genes seem to play a substantial role in determining who is vulnerable to developing an eating disorder. However, the societal pressure isn't irrelevant; it may be the environmental trigger that releases a person's genetic risk." Families should not be blamed for causing anorexia. In fact, they are often devastated and suffer from the consequences of this illness."

Anorexia nervosa is a serious and potentially lethal illness, with a mortality rate greater than 10 percent. It is characterized by the relentless pursuit of thinness, emaciation and the obsessive fear of gaining weight. Anorexia nervosa commonly begins during adolescence, but strikes throughout the lifespan--it is nine times more common in females than in males. Personality traits, such as perfectionism, anxiety and obsessionality, are often present in childhood before the eating disorder develops and may contribute to the risk of developing this disorder.

"We need to understand all the factors that influence eating disorders, both genetic and environmental, and find ways to address them in order to prevent people from developing these potentially deadly conditions," said Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D., William and Jeanne Jordan Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Understanding how genes and environment interact both to increase risk for eating disorders and to protect those who are genetically vulnerable from developing the disorder will require the cooperation of professionals in the eating disorders field, the media, and the fashion and entertainment industries. Only cooperatively, will we be able to move the field forward toward the elimination of this disease."

"Anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of any mental illness, yet so few dollars are dedicated to the cure," stated Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association. "These scientific advances demonstrating a genetic component are significant and so meaningful to our families, wiping away the myths and emphasizing the need for even more research to help the next generation."

Rappelons, s'il en est besoin, que les top-models ne sont pas nécessairement des experts médicaux.

Neutralise radiation and stay off milk: the truth about celebrity health claims

A new leaflet aimed at famous people debunks unscientific comments

James Randerson, science correspondent
The Guardian

From Madonna's efforts to find a way to "neutralise radiation" to Carol Caplin's advice on keeping "your lymph system unclogged" if you want to avoid breast cancer, celebrities are seldom shy about offering scientific-sounding health tips.

But with the season for promoting new year diets and health fads in full swing, a group of scientists are hoping to steer the rich and famous away from making pseudo-scientific gaffes.

The charity Sense About Science, which promotes the dissemination of good scientific information to the public, has assembled the wisdom of 16 leading researchers in a handy leaflet which it hopes will become a must-read for celebrities.

Tracey Brown, director of Sense About Science, said: "All year long people send us frustrating examples of celebrities promoting something that makes no sense. Once it's done, it's really difficult to undo. We know some people aren't interested in good science or evidence. We are equally sure some will be glad to talk through claims they are asked to front, because they take their public impact seriously, or just for their own self-preservation."

The leaflet, entitled Need to Speak to a Scientist? includes numerous examples of quackery and pseudo-scientific nonsense attributed to celebrities.

For example, Madonna was quoted by a Sunday paper in August as saying she had been working with scientists to find a way to "neutralise radiation". Nick Evans, an environmental radiochemist at Loughborough University, said: "Radioactivity cannot be neutralised, it can only be moved from one place to another until it decays away at its own rate. There are no magical solutions."

More serious perhaps are celebrity statements which may influence the public on health matters. The Sense About Science study cites the actor Juliette Stevenson, who gave her views about the MMR vaccine to a Sunday newspaper, as saying: "I was alarmed at the idea of three diseases being injected into her system in one go. I thought, bloody hell, that's an awful lot for this tiny thing."

Adam Finn, a paediatrician at the University of Bristol, said: "The worst fallacies are ones that sound as if they ought to be true - but sometimes common sense is nonsense. Even tiny babies' immune systems handle many new infections at once, no problem. The best advice is, avoid needless risk by protecting children with full, prompt immunisation."

The actor Joanna Lumley is quoted on a vegan website, making a link between cancer and diet, and saying: "We cannot go on force-feeding animals chemicals and growth stimulants the way we are. Why do you think cancer is roaring ahead at the moment?"

John Toy, medical director of Cancer Research UK, said: "Cancer is not 'roaring ahead'. It is more common mostly because people are living longer. It is essential that 'cancer causing' claims are based only on scientifically proven facts, not scaremongering."

The WWF campaign entitled I'm a celebrity ... get it out of me also came in for criticism. The conservation charity measured levels of various chemicals in the blood of celebrities to illustrate the supposed dangers of chemicals our bodies pick up each day. The comedian David Baddiel, the model Melinda Messenger and the swimmer Sharon Davies were all involved in the campaign.

"A whole host of unwanted chemicals find their way into our bodies all the time," said John Hoskins, a toxicologist. "Most leave quickly but some stay - asbestos and silica in our lungs, dioxins in our blood. Do they matter? No! The most important thing is dose. One aspirin cures a headache, a hundred kills."

Sense About Science has distributed the leaflet to VIP hangouts such as Premiership football clubs, exclusive restaurants, and clubs such as London's China White and Boujis, as well as the Virgin VIP lounges at Gatwick and Heathrow. The charity has even set up a telephone hotline for the great and good in need of scientific advice.

Simon Singh, the science author and trustee of Sense About Science, said celebrities could have a huge impact on public opinion and should seek advice before pronouncing on science. "Celebrities can have a huge influence on the public, but they need to make sure they are doing more good than harm, by checking their facts."

Francis Wheen, author of How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered The World, agreed that celebrity pronouncements could have a huge influence on the public. "Pointing out that these latter-day emperors have no clothes is not merely a pleasure, it's an urgent necessity," he said.

Heather Mills McCartney
Obesity
Claim: "Every day there's a new report warning that obesity levels in children are out of control ... the fact that those kids who drink the most milk gain the most weight should cause alarm bells to be ringing everywhere."
Verdict: Philip Coan, physiologist at Cambridge University: "It is not true ... a US study ... found no link between increases in child weight and increases in drink consumption."

Madonna
Nuclear waste
Claim: "I mean, one of the biggest problems that exists right now in the world is nuclear waste ... that's something I've been involved with for a while with a group of scientists - finding a way to neutralise radiation."
Verdict: Nick Evans, environmental radiochemist, at Loughborough University: "Radioactivity cannot be 'neutralised', it can only be moved from one place to another until it decays away at its own rate. It comes in many different types: some last for billions of years, others decay away in a few minutes. There are no magical solutions."

Gillian McKeith
Nutritional benefits of seeds
Claim: Gillian McKeith, television presenter and regular star of the Guardian's Bad Science column, said: "Each sprouting seed is packed with the nutritional energy needed to create a fullgrown healthy plant."
Verdict: Steve Rawsthorne, plant scientist at the John Innes Centre: "This is a nice idea, Gillian, but when we eat seeds we don't break down the stored products like a plant does ... A seed has stored proteins, starch and oil that are broken down when water is added to give it the energy and molecular building blocks to start the germination process ... To become a fully formed plant, the seedling then needs sunlight and more water."

Chris de Burgh
Pain relief
Claim: The singer, speaking about intervening over someone else's injury, said: "He was in serious pain just below the knee, and I felt the area above had been traumatised. I started feeling and I'd say within 20 minutes he was walking again. It took away the pain."
Verdict: Shaun Treweek, health services researcher at Dundee University: "Are you sure the pain relief was due to healing hands? We need a trial where the patients are randomly allocated to either the test therapy or a comparison therapy. Otherwise you can't be sure what happened wasn't due to chance."

Carole Caplin
Breast cancer
Claim: Cherie Blair's lifestyle guru said that women should be informed about avoiding breast cancer and that they should be "keeping the lymph system clear and unclogged".
Verdict: Michael Baum, emeritus professor of surgery at University College London: "Carol's idea ... has no meaning whatsoever. It is not based on knowledge of anatomy or physiology of the human body, let alone of breast cancer."

Référence:
Le dépliant de Sense about Science

Du canular au complot

Au début était la rumeur, limitée par le bouche-à-oreille, puis vinrent les mass media et dernièrement l’Internet. Un ordre de magnitude dans la rapidité de diffusion était franchi à chaque fois. Au début, c’étaient les limites de la transmission d’une personne à l’autre qui faisait que la rumeur s’éteignait progressivement. Avec les mass media, c’était l’éthique des professionnels qui servait de contre-feu, chacun étant à la fois pyromane et pompier. Avec la structure ‘anarchiste’ de l’Internet, il n’existe actuellement rien de tout cela. Il n’y existe aucun mécanisme de régulation, d’autocontrôle. La rumeur peut partir d’une seule personne et faire le tour de la Terre en quelques jours, influençant des millions de personnes. Ainsi, ce qui n’aurait été qu’une anecdote vite oubliée prend ainsi une ‘vie’ autonome, tel un virus Ebola, disparaissant et réapparaissant ailleurs. Là où les vers informatiques exploitent les failles de nos systèmes pour se propager impunément, les rumeurs se propagent en exploitant les failles personnelles de nos systèmes de croyance, notre crédulité.
Certaines des rumeurs sont drôles et exploitent notre tendance à rire et faire rire pour nous inciter à la retransmettre à nos correspondants. Ainsi, le message qui présentait la soi-disant ‘une’ du journal El Moudjahid, annonçant la mort du Pape et présentant ses condoléances à son épouse et ses enfants, est un bon exemple de ce genre de canular. Comme beaucoup d’histoires drôles, elle a un aspect plus sombre, jouant sur une tendance à croire que les journalistes Algériens sont ignorants des institutions catholiques. Ces histoires deviennent parfois des légendes urbaines, reprises régulièrement avec une aura de vérité qui augmente à mesure que le temps passe et qu’elle échappe au contrôle de son auteur.
D’autres rumeurs exploitent notre ignorance dans un domaine, se présentant comme émanant d’une autorité, tel le message nous demandant d’effacer le fichier jdbmgr.exe de notre système qui serait un virus dangereux, en fait un fichier parfaitement légitime et inoffensif. Le schéma est classique : un message arrive dans nos boîtes aux lettres électroniques, nous demandant d’effacer un fichier car celui-ci est une menace. Ce message se présente comme émanant d’une autorité (en fait inexistante) et nous est retransmis par une personne de notre entourage en qui nous avons confiance, bien qu’il ne soit pas un expert dans le domaine informatique. C’est l’argument d’appel à l’autorité qui joue ici à plein.
D’autres rumeurs exploitent la tendance à la suspicion envers la politique et les gouvernements et nous en arrivons aux théories du complot. Le monde à l’envers : utiliser la suspicion et le doute pour mieux susciter la crédulité. Notre volonté de croire au complot, et non notre doute légitime en face d’une information, nous fait tomber dans le panneau. Ce sont les plus dangereuses et les plus lâches des rumeurs, n’hésitant pas à calomnier anonymement.
Dans cette catégorie citons, parmi les plus récentes, la rumeur contre le vaccin de la polio qui a trouvé un écho favorable dans les régions musulmanes du Nigeria, avec les conséquences que l’on connaît. La rumeur a pris comme origine un incident sur un lot de vaccins contre la polio, repris par l’extrême droite américaine pour soutenir une rumeur antisémite, rumeur qui a trouvé un écho parmi les intégristes musulmans, pour finir par leur causer du tort : la plupart des victimes ont en effet été contaminées au nord Nigeria parmi les populations musulmanes, puis parmi ceux qui y ont voyagé et suite à un pèlerinage à La Mecque.
Citons également le complot du 11 septembre qui aurait été planifié par les Américains eux-mêmes pour monter leur opinion publique en vue d’une guerre contre les musulmans, la réélection de Bush Jr et le contrôle du pétrole pakistanais, irakien, etc. Cette rumeur a été reprise quelques mois plus tard par Thierry Meyssan, dans un livre qui a été un succès populaire en dépit des gigantesques failles d’une ‘enquête’ faite dans un fauteuil par un auteur inexpérimenté dans le domaine. Cette affaire aura eu le mérite de précipiter la déchéance du groupe de Thierry Meyssan, le Réseau Voltaire, après une courte période de popularité injustifiée.
Comment se défendre contre de telles rumeurs ? C’est plus simple qu’il n’y paraît. Internet ne possède aucun mécanisme de contrôle, mais on y trouve le meilleur comme le pire, et surtout le moyen de trouver l’un comme l’autre. Au lieu de subir passivement les rumeurs qui nous parviennent, nous pouvons mener une contre-enquête et vérifier que nos sources d’information sont fiables. Les moyens d’investigation sont fournis par les moteurs de recherche et par certains sites spécialisés, qui nous mâchent le travail, comme l’excellent Hoaxbuster (http://www.hoaxbuster.com/) . Ainsi, ce site nous explique qu’il n’y a aucune raison d’écraser un fichier de notre système parce qu’un inconnu nous le demande. Une simple recherche Internet sur les rumeurs contre le vaccin de la polio aurait montré aux autorités musulmanes du Nigeria que leurs sources n’étaient pas dignes de foi. De simples recherches auraient permis à tous de vérifier que les rumeurs reprises par Thierry Meyssan ne reposaient sur rien de sérieux, qu’elles avaient aussi pour origine les réseaux néo-Nazis américains, reprises une fois de plus en cœur par les milieux intégristes musulmans. De façon assez amusante, Thierry Meyssan a ensuite eu l’occasion de prêcher la bonne parole dans ces milieux intégristes, qui avaient sans doute oublié qu’ils avaient eux-mêmes contribué à répandre cette rumeur.