News Release

How to execute dietary management in eating disorder patients

Peer-Reviewed Publication

World Journal of Gastroenterology

Eating disorders (ED) patients display a high prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms and functional gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome. These symptoms may interfere with their nutritional management. Ingestion of fructose-sorbitol (F-S) is an established means of gastrointestinal symptom provocation in irritable bowel syndrome patients. Surprisingly, although ED patients are known to consume "diet" products containing fructose and sorbitol, their gastrointestinal symptom responses to F-S provocation have not been studied.

A research article published on November 14, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology describes the responses of 26 ED patients to F-S provocation. The research team, including Professors Kellow, Abraham and Hansen from the University of Sydney, Australia, monitored gastrointestinal symptoms and breath hydrogen concentration (a marker of small bowel absorption) for 3 h following ingestion of 50 g glucose on one day, and 25 g fructose/5 g sorbitol on the next day. Responses to F-S were compared to those of 20 asymptomatic healthy females.

F-S provoked gastrointestinal symptoms in 15 ED patients but only in one healthy control. In contrast, only one ED patient displayed symptom provocation to glucose, which does not usually provoke gastrointestinal symptoms; this shows specificity of the F-S response. A greater symptom response was observed in the most underweight ED patients (BMI ≤ 17.5 kg/m2) compared to those with a BMI >17.5 kg/m2. There were no differences in psychological scores, prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders or breath hydrogen responses between patients with and without an F-S response.

The key findings of this study are that F-S provoked gastrointestinal symptoms in more than half of the female ED patients, a significantly greater proportion than that found in healthy individuals; the response was specific for F-S ingestion; and there was a greater symptom response in patients at lower BMI values. Consistent with this last finding, symptom provocation was more common in anorexia nervosa patients. Hence negative energy balance appears to play a role in F-S sensitivity in these patients. As fructose and sorbitol are likely to be commonly ingested by ED patients, representing a potential source of gastrointestinal distress that would impact negatively on their nutritional management, F-S provocative testing could prove valuable in identifying those patients with symptom sensitivity to these substances.

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Reference: Friesen N, Hansen RD, Abraham SF, Kellow JE. Fructosesorbitol ingestion provokes gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with eating disorders. World J Gastroenterol 2009; 15(42): 5295-5299

http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/15/5295.asp

Correspondence to: Dr. John E Kellow, Department of Gastroenterology, Royal North Shore Hospital, St. Leonards, Sydney 2065, Australia. johnk@med.usyd.edu.au

Telephone: +61-2-99267355 Fax: +61-2-94363719

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H. pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

About The WJG Press

The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.


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