New studies are being conducted to analyze hair follicles in diagnosing eating disorders.
Eating disorders can be one of the hardest disorders to detect, as individuals are secretive and will lie to keep their behaviour covered. Researchers at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, have studied whether patterns of carbon and nitrogen molecules in strands of hair were different from those with normal eating behaviours.
“The test needs further validation before it will be ready for routine clinical use, but we believe that the current work shows that the method is already quite robust,” says lead author Kent Hatch of Brigham Young University’s Department of Integrative Biology.
“While some objective measures, such as low weight for age and height, aid in diagnosis of eating disorders, up until now doctors and researchers have had to rely heavily on self-reported information and qualitative interviews with patients. Data collected this way is often highly subjective and demands honesty from the patient. This test has the potential of providing an objective, biological measure for diagnosing eating disorders,” says Kent.
Current ways of diagnosing anorexia, bulimia and compulsive overeating are by questionnaires and interviews, as well as weight.
He stated, "Rather than waiting until it's extremely obvious that they've fallen off the wagon if you will, they might be able to take some hair and see whether they've been sticking to the treatment regime that has been prescribed for them, rather than relying on the honesty of the person."
Hair is affected by eating patterns, each strand becoming a chemical diary. They record someone’s day-to-day nutrition and have an 80% accuracy prediction of anorexia and bulimia by using only 5 strands of hair.
Hatch notes that the tests need to be refined before use in a medical setting. "With further work, we hope to not only use the test as a diagnostic tool but be able to use it to help monitor a person's recovery," he said.
