Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating and compulsive eating. Studies now reveal a close correlation between microbiota and TCA. Find out in the next few lines how the microbiota affects your relationship with food.
Eating disorders: what are they?
Eating disorders can be associated with mood or personality disorders. Indeed, the unconscious will seek to express suffering or emotional distress through food. These disorders affect young women in particular, and the risk of suicide is real as is the risk of mortality from denutrition.
Anorexia nervosa
anorexia nervosa is characterized by a refusal to eat with a fear of gaining weight. The person does not recognize their thinness and always thinks they are too fat. It is a pathology of self-perception.
Bulimia
As for bulimia, it occurs in fits during which the person ingests huge amounts of food without being able to stop. Once the crisis is over, the person feels a sense of shame and will implement compensatory techniques such as vomiting, taking laxatives, or playing sports to excess.
The person with bulimia typically has low self-esteem and distorted body perception with obsession with weight control.
Hyperphagia
Hyperphagia is the consumption of an astronomical amount of food without being able to stop. The only difference with bulimia is that the person does not try to compensate. It keeps everything that can lead to obesity.
Eating Compulsion and Serotonin
When food compulsions come at the end of the day, it is worth checking to see if there is a problem with serotonin. This neurohormone is the neurotransmitter regulating mood and eating behavior. It is generally secreted at the end of the day around 5 pm.
95% of serotonin is synthesized in the intestinal lumen before reaching the brain via the vagus nerve. Therefore, it is very important to have a rich and quality gut microbiota to properly manufacture serotonin. Yet, during eating disorders, the microbiota is completely disorganized, altered, and depleted. Indeed, junk food, compulsive eating and sugar addiction disrupt the flora, making it fragile. It is a vicious circle that sets in.
Obesity and psychiatric disorders
A European study has found links between obesity and certain psychiatric disorders. The fat content of the diet impacts the intestinal ecosystem. Thus, overweightpeople have a disrupted microbiota which results in further promoting weight gain, having insulin resistance and general inflammation that can cause psychiatric disorders.
Psychotherapies seeking to review eating behaviors, thought patterns, and self-image are interesting when accompanied by a dietary restructuring supported and complemented by pro- and prebiotic intake.
The vagus nerve, a two-way link between the brain and the gut
Mice subjected to stress had lost their memory for about ten days. As announced above, the vagus nerve makes the connection between the intestines and the brain and in both directions. As soon as probiotics had been administered to them, they completely recovered their memories.
Bulimia and intestinal hyperpermeability
In bulimia, there is a real addiction to food that is created. In fact, opioid substances are found in the blood, the origin of which would come from poorly degraded food.
The two foods that have been identified are wheat and cow's milk. When their proteins are not completely degraded and hyperpermeability in the intestinal mucosa is demonstrated, protein fragments enter the circulation and can migrate to the brain.
In addition, it is interesting to note that gluten is a stimulant of opiate receptors in the brain. As a result, by removing gluten, hypereating and bulimic behaviors can be calmed.
Anorexia nervosa and microbiota.
In anorexia nervosa, it is the absence of food that becomes a drug. The denutrition engendered by lack of nutrition causes a synthesization of endogenous opioid substances that sustain an addiction to this condition. IgG levels against wheat and cow's milk are frequently elevated in anorexia nervosa. The denutrition leads to a hyperpermeability severe and long-lasting which has the effect of exacerbating the phenomena of intolerance and maintaining behavioral disorders.
To conclude
To say that TCA originates from gut dysbiosis is not quite right. The psychological factor is obviously to be taken into account. However, taking care of the microbiota potentiates psychotherapies and facilitates recovery for patients with eating disorders.