Preader Willi Syndrome A Dangerous, Expensive Disease
What if way too much food was still not enough?
Good Morning America today featured a story about a woman with a very rare and peculiar disease. It’s called Prader Willi Syndrome, and it’s a condition that affects the part of your brain that lets you know when you’re full or when you’re not hungry.
Imagine always feeling hungry. Imagine you’ve already had a full meal, with steak, potatoes, vegetables, bread and even dessert, and you still feel hungry. That’s what happens to people with Prader Willi Syndrome. Reports say that people who have Prader Willi Syndrome will get food any way they can, including stealing, and that their families have to keep all of the food in the house locked up
Prader Willi Syndrome could be deadly
Good Morning America says that an estimated 45,000 Americans have Prader Willi Syndrome, but that 25,000 could be undiagnosed. This is not a disease that can be solved with payday loans to pay for medication. Some of the drugs that are prescribed to help compulsive disorders, depression and addiction can help with Prader Willi Syndrome somewhat, but carriers still feels hungry, they just act on it a little bit less.
Kate Kane, the woman who was featured on Good Morning America, has lost weight and been able to control her Prader Willi Syndrome by living in a group home with others who suffer from the same condition. The food is locked up, the residents have a strict schedule and do an hours of exercise every day. Because there is no cure, Kate Kane will likely have to live in this home for the rest of her life. However, Kate has lost 150 pounds since moving into the home.
Prader Willi Syndrome symptoms implications
I have definitely gone through times when I had a hefty appetite for no good reason, and I think most other people have, too. I have also gone through times, though, when I didn’t have much of an appetite at all. And I have never felt like no matter how much I ate I couldn’t get full.
But that’s what people with Prader Willi Syndrome go through every day. It explains many cases of extreme obesity, and when people don’t get help they can die from Prader Willi. Good Morning America reports:
Kane, 26, feels so hungry that she begs, steals and even eats out of the garbage to get to food. And if someone didn’t stop her, the consequences could be tragic.
“I could eat until I die, basically,” she said. “Or I was — got really sick.”
More Prader Willi Syndrome symptoms
Hunger isn’t where the Prader Willi Sydrome symptoms stop. GMA says this genetic disease, caused by a chromosomal flaw, also causes muscle weakness and learning disabilities.
Kate Kane has nearly been arrested multiple times and lost jobs because she stole food. The group home is the only solution that works for her, but her parents have donated to Prader Willi Syndrome research. Scientists hope that studying Prader-Willi will offer insight into what controls appetites and the causes of obesity.
This article states that Kate lives in a group home with others just like her. I would like to know where it is located. I can't seem to locate any. I live in Ohio, I would like to live near the group home so that I could still visit with my son as often as he would like me to. I love him to death but I'm not sure I can deal with the emotional roller coaster that he puts me on. I know he loves me and that he doesnt really mean the things he says to me but all the same, it hurts me tremendously. I want the best for him and a group home with others that deal with the same issues would probably help him to fit in somewhere.
I have a granddaughter with this syndrome. One thing that is not noted in many of the articles on this subject is that PWS people have very slow metabolisms and poor muscle tone, so that they can eat as much as a normal person, normal amounts, good food, normal times and still gain a lot more weight than we would — They gain weight on many fewer calories (1) because of metabolism slowness and (2) because they have a lot less muscle — muscles burn calories. Thank you for writing about this important noninherited chromosomal mistake.