Your Donations at Work New research looks to help teens with anorexia
T
een girls with anorexia are at risk for poor bone development, but new made-in-Saskatchewan research is aiming to help change that. Pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Munier Nour is leading a pilot study using estrogen replacement to study the impact on bone health in girls with anorexia. New and effective strategies are desperately needed, as there is no proven treatment or prevention therapy approved for optimizing bone health in young girls with anorexia. Unfortunately, most studies that have attempted to replace estrogen in a pill format for those with anorexia have not shown benefits to bone health. Nour’s innovative study, funded by Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation, will instead replace estrogen pills with a patch, which has shown promising results. “It’s important to ensure every adolescent can attain their peak bone mass, or else it could have an impact on their entire life. If there are detriments to bone health, it could lead to things such as earlier risk of osteoporosis or fractures,” Nour explained.
20 PATTISONCHILDRENS.CA WINTER/SPRING 2020
Anorexia nervosa is a condition of severe low body weight, as a result of impaired body image and an intense fear of weight gain. It often occurs in adolescence at a critical time for bone development. Teen girls who have anorexia are at risk for bone loss and bone fragility because of a number of hormonal changes that occur in response to inadequate nutritional intake. Estrogen deficiency is thought to be a major contributor to bone loss. The study will examine the bone health of 24 Saskatchewan girls with anorexia, ranging in age from 12 to 20-years-old. For two years, participants will have their bone health assessed multiple times, with half of them receiving estrogen and the other half receiving a placebo. “In Saskatchewan, we have unique opportunities in terms of bone health research. We’ll be using state-of-the-art high resolution bone imaging techniques in a collaborative team of researchers and clinicians to conduct this research,” Nour said.
