Eating Disorders

In my last entry I talked about how I considered Crash diets as a type of eating disorder. An eating disorder is extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food issues.  From doing research on diets, I saw that it is easy to get sucked into the self destructive web of eating disorders.  Most eating disorders start off innocent. It might start out as just eating smaller or larger amounts of food than usual, but at some point, the urge to eat less or more spirals out of control. I felt like it is important to blog about eating disorders because it is a serious issue. Eating disorders can cause serious health problems and can even lead to death. It’s important to educate yourself about the risks before you go into starting a diet, just so you know the healthy way to approach losing weight.  Sadly, I’ve know people who thought It was okay to starve themselves for a period of time, binge on food and purge afterwards, or even fast after bingeing. It is never okay to resort to this for losing weight. If you feel like you might have a problem, then you should get Psychological and medicinal treatment. Eating disorders are a treatable disease. 

There are 3 main eating disorders; 

·         Anorexia Nervosa – some people with anorexia restrict the amount of food that they eat in an extreme manner. They might try to lose weight by excessively exercising.  Some vomit after eating (much like bulimia) or misuse laxatives, diet pills or enemas.  Many people with anorexia see themselves as being fat when they are clearly malnourished. They typically weight themselves obsessively.  People with anorexia are 10 times more likely to die as a result of their illness compared to those without an eating disorder.

Symptoms of Anorexia may include

• osteoporosis
• brittle hair and nails
• dry and yellowish skin
• growth of fine hair over body
• mild anemia, and muscle weakness and loss
• severe constipation
• low blood pressure, slowed breathing and pulse
• drop in internal body temperature, causing a person to feel cold all the time
• lethargy

·         Bulimia Nervosa – Bulimia is frequent episodes of losing control over eating. Then it is followed by throwing up, misuse of diet pills, misuse of laxatives, misuse of enemas, fasting, and/or over exercising.  Unlike Anorexia, a person can appear to be normal by falling into normal range for their weight and age.  People with Bulimia almost always do the bingeing and purging secretly, because the person feels disgust with their problem.

Symptoms of Bulimia may include:

·         electrolyte imbalances,

·         gastrointestinal problems

·         oral and tooth-related problems

·          chronically inflamed and sore throat

·         Swollen glands in the neck and below the jaw

·         kidney problems from diuretic abuse

·         esophageal reflux disorder

·         severe dehydration from purging of fluid

     Binge- Eating Disorder – On the other end there is an eating disorder that is caused by over eating. I firmly believe that Binge eating disorder is one of the many causes for childhood obesity. For some families it is common to show signs of affection and love through food. Parents also use food to sooth children.  Binge- Eating is when a person loses control over what they are eating.  It is like bulimia with the losing control over food, but different because the person doesn’t purge.   As a result the person gains an excessive amount of weight. It is often lead by guilt which results in more binge eating.  People with binge eating disorder do not use vomiting or laxatives to purge as a way to control weight. Binge eating can be genetic; can be triggered by emotions, or learned from childhood. 

The Risks of Binge Eating include:

·         Type 2 Diabetes

·         Hypertension

·         cardiovascular disease

·         risk of stroke

·         increased risk of caners

·         increased risk of fatty liver disease

·         increased risk of gallbladder disease

·         breathing problems

·         Health risks for expectant mothers and baby

·         Premature death