Twin Brothers Battle Rare Condition That Causes Never-Ending Hunger

Raising twin boys is a challenge for any single mom, but it’s especially difficult for one particular mom in New Haven, Connecticut. Dianna Schatzlein-Ahern’s two youngest sons, Stevie and Eddie Ahern, are 11. They both suffer from Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic condition that makes them insatiably hungry no matter how much they eat. “I have to keep everything locked away so they don’t get up in the middle of the night and have a feast,” Schatzlein-Ahern told Barcroft TV. “They can never feel full, so could potentially eat themselves to death.” For health reasons, she attempts to limit her sons to 1,200 calories a day each. To do this, she has to lock up all of the family’s food; she also locks all the medications in her bedroom, and then locks her bedroom door when it’s time for sleep. “They’ll eat out of the garbage. We always have to take the garbage out and put it outside,” she said, noting the boys are normally sleepwalking when that happens. “I don’t think they’re aware of it. They’re just so hungry that they’ll just eat, wherever they see food. They’ll eat it off the floor and they’ll eat it off anybody’s floor.” Prader-Willi syndrome affects between 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 30,000 people worldwide, according to the National Institutes of Health.  The condition is a caused by genetic dysfunction on a specific area of c...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news