Hot topic: Can obesity science help tackle anorexia?

Here’s a novel thought: could the science that has enabled us to develop obesity drugs, be repurposed to help people put on weight? 

Now, the vast majority of us don’t, of course, need to put on weight. 

But some people do – notably many individuals with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. 

In a ‘Perspectives’ paper recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and an accompanying podcast, Amanda Banks M.D. talks about this possibility. 

She discusses it in relation to growing concern about the misuse of GLP-1s by people with eating disorders, who could end up losing dangerous amounts of weight. 

In the podcast, she describes how our knowledge of disorders like anorexia has advanced massively over the last decade. 

So that we now understand that it’s not “just” a psychiatric condition, but there can also be strong genetic drivers. She describes those with anorexia as being at the opposite end of a spectrum to those with obesity.  

And she says that many pathways – such as those regulating metabolism and energy homeostasis – are actually shared between obesity and anorexia. 

She says this is “an opportunity to identify druggable targets to change the way that calories are burned, and alter the underlying metabolism, and in so doing, allow for more rapid weight-gain in the acute treatment phases of anorexia nervosa”. 

So, could we flip the switch on these pathways to encourage appetite and improve energy retention, to help those struggling with anorexia to put on weight? 

It’s an intriguing possibility.  

And although the commercial opportunity would be smaller than that for weight loss drugs – no secret there! – it could still be significant. 

It could also help ease enormous suffering. 

According to the UK charity BEAT Eating Disorders, at least one and quarter million people in the UK alone suffer from one kind of eating disorder or another, often in secret. 

If you are interested, you can listen to the whole of Dr Banks’ interview with the New England Journal of Medicine, using the link!