Anorexia Athletica and its regulatory specifities

In many sports, athletes with low body weight have a distinct advantage over their opponents, e.g. cyclists, jockeys, rhythmic and female acrobatic gymnasts, marathoners, climbers, and ski jumpers. The advantage of having a low body weight can easily turn in it`s extreme, to a disadvantage owing to the associated health problems. The problem becomes more acute due to the fact that youths are more suited to sports that require a low body weight, due to their inherently lower weight to height ratio. An extremely low body weight deliberately induced by the athletes can lead to severe health risks. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are diseases with mental and physical consequences and should be considered as health problems of major concern. It is the aim of this project to investigate the body composition and, especially body fat distribution in a longitudinal study over three years, and to explore the relationship between adipose tissue and humoral variables in athletes with low body weight. The longitudinal analyses of hormones (Leptin, HgH, IGF-l, IGF-BP3, TNF-alpha, Interleukin 6) as well as the determination of the subcutaneous adipose tissue distribution enables fundamental insight in regulatory mechanisms of the endocrine system of athletes consuming a low-calorific diet. These investigations in male athletes with low body weight will be of major general concern medically, since little information on anorexia in male patients is available, and effective methods of treatment are lacking. The advantage of low body weight in sports such as ski- jumping or climbing indicates that female athletes could become a real competitive threat.