In a March 29 article on shreveporttimes.com, author Doreen Nagle provided the following details on the prevalence of eating disorders among teenagers:

• About 10 of every 100 teen girls suffer from two body image disorders, bulimia and anorexia. These two diseases are classified as psychiatric disorders and may run in families.
• Over 12 percent of high school students admit that they have gone without eating for 24 hours so they may lose weight or prevent weight gain.
• More than six percent of students nationwide admitted having taken diet supplements without a doctor's advice to lose weight or to keep from gaining weight.
• Forcing oneself to vomit as an aid in losing weight or keeping weight off is a practice used by about 5 percent of teens; the number of girls using this method is more than twice that of boys.

"Is your child unrealistically concerned with being 'fat' when she or he is too thin in your estimation? Does your child's weight fluctuate with no reasonable explanation?," Nagle wrote. "Watch for the signs of anorexia or bulimia."

Labels: bulimia, teen eating disorders, anorexia

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According to data from the Touch Research Institutes (TRI) at the University of Miami, School of Medicine, bulimic patients who received massage therapy experienced immediate decreases in anxiety and depression, according to certain psychological and behavioral measures.

According to the TRI's report, "Bulimic adolescent girls received massage therapy 2 times a week for 5 weeks. Effects included an improved body image, decreased depression and anxiety symptoms, decreased cortisol levels and increased dopamine and serotonin levels."

A similar study, also conducted by TRI, showed that anorexic patients also experienced an alleviation of symptoms as a result of massage therapy. According to study authors, "Massage therapy reduced anxiety, depressed mood, salivary cortisol (stress hormone) levels and body dissatisfaction and increased dopamine levels in women with anorexia."

(Sources: www6.miami.edu, www.massagemag.com)

Labels: bulimia, anorexia, anxiety disorders, massage therapy

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Binge eating disorder is characterized by periods of excessive food consumption. This makes the disorder similar to bulimia, but individuals suffering from bulimia consume massive quantities of food within relatively short periods of time and then utilize one or more drastic strategies to purge the excess calories from their bodies.

These purging strategies may include the use of laxatives, excessive exercise and self-induced vomiting. Individuals suffering from binge eating disorder, however, do not purge. One of the most noticeable effects of the disorder, therefore, is usually massive weight gain.

Research has linked binge eating disorder with a variety of serious health problems, including hypertension (high blood pressure), obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Individuals who become obese from excessive food consumption also experience myriad other health issues related to obesity, including musculoskeletal problems, high cholesterol and respiratory strain.

Individuals suffering from binge eating disorder eat compulsively, meaning they will consume large quantities of food whether they are hungry or not. They often feel that they have no control over their eating behaviors. A binge eater may consume between 10,000 and 20,000 calories during a single binge incident, while the average person consumes about 1,500 to 3,000 calories per day.

Recent research suggests several risk factors for binge eating disorder, including age (a higher percentage of people in their 40s and 50s have the disorder), the past or current existence of other eating disorders, mental health issues (in particular anxiety and depression), a history of sexual abuse, social pressures, genetics and high-stress jobs.

Although binge eating disorder is not currently recognized as a distinct clinical disorder, some experts believe it to be the most common form of disordered eating. As obesity in the United States hits an all-time high, eating disorder treatment providers are working to develop treatment strategies specifically for individuals struggling with binge eating disorder.

(Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com)

Labels: binge-eating, treatment, bulimia

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According to a new study, practicing yoga can help individuals who suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The study, titled "Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Yoga in the Treatment of Eating Disorders," appeared on Nov. 3, 2009, in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Researchers tracked the progress of 50 adolescents, ages 11 to 16, who were receiving treatment for eating disorders. The adolescents were divided into two groups: one group received traditional treatment and the other group received traditional treatment plus two hours of yoga classes per week with a certified yoga instructor.

Researchers found that individuals who participated in yoga classes made greater improvement and were less likely to relapse than those who did not practice yoga.

(Source: www.lsureveille.com)

Labels: bulimia, anorexia, yoga

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At age 36, Alanis Morissette has reached a place of peace when it comes to eating, after spending many of her teen years battling unhealthy behaviors including the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia.

By the age of 14, Alanis was already living in the public eye as the star of a popular Canadian television show, the founder of a record label and the recipient of a contract with MCA Canada. But with her stardom came unbelievable stress, which the young star found difficult to handle.

In an interview with Health magazine for its December issue, Morissette recalls: "As a teen, I was both anorexic and bulimic. I was a young woman in the public eye, on the receiving end of a lot of attention, and I was trying to protect myself from men who were using their power in ways I was too young to know how to handle.

"Disappointment, sadness and pain hit me hard, and I tried to numb those feelings through my relationship with food. For four to six months at a time, I would barely eat. I lived on a diet of Melba toast, carrots and black coffee. I began recovering at age 18 when a sweet friend confronted me."

(Source: www.cnn.com)

Labels: bulimia, anorexia

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According to a new study, bullying may be a significant factor in eating disorders. Beat, a charity that works with eating disorder sufferers in the United Kingdom, conducted the study.

Of the 600 young people with eating disorders who were surveyed, 91 percent reported being the victim of bullying, and 46 percent felt that it contributed to their development of an eating disorder. About half of the respondents reported being bullied for a period of two to five years, while 11 percent reported being bullied for six years or more.

Beat chief executive Susan Ringwood commented on the results of the study: "Bullying undermines young peoples' self-confidence and lowers their self-esteem, raising the risk of eating disorders. Eating disorders are complex with no single cause but bullying is a significant factor for too many people."

One 23-year-old man who responded to the survey recalled his experiences as a victim of bullying and, eventually, an eating disorder sufferer: "I only had one friend in high school, but even he bullied me when the others were around. A lot of my classmates didn't want to associate with me in case they got picked on too. As the bullying grew worse and more kids joined in, I would run out of lessons to escape the abuse.

"I hid in the boy's toilets where I knew I wouldn't be found. There I would comfort eat to ease the tension and anxiety that had built up inside me throughout the day and I began to make myself sick. Over time, it developed into bulimia and it took me many years to recover."

Beat is calling for additional research into the relationship between bullying and eating disorders. According to Beat, approximately 1.6 million people in the United Kingdom suffer from eating disorders.

(Source: www.communitynewswire.press.net)

Labels: bulimia, bullying

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Bobbie Jo Fatheree was finally hospitalized when her weight plummeted to 90 pounds. The Virginia native played sports avidly in high school and was always very physically fit. During her freshman year of college, however, she broke her foot.

Due to inactivity while her foot healed, she saw her weight spike up to 200 pounds. Her always-fit body was, she felt, out of control.

Once her foot healed, Fatheree began working out like a maniac. She was so driven to lose weight that she also developed bulimia and then anorexia. Her weight dropped down to 130 pounds. By the next year, while training for the women's hockey team, she pushed her weight down to a dangerous 90 pounds.

At this point, her parents stepped in, hospitalized her and helped to regain her perspective. Following college, she continued to struggle with eating issues and finding a diet that worked for her. It wasn't until she tried competitive body building that something clicked. A friend helped her with nutrition, workouts, and learning pose and dress in competitions.

Fatheree recovered from her eating disorders, and found that a key to preventing destructive eating patterns was to stop weighing herself on a scale. She commented, "The scale was one of my triggers. It would make or break my whole day, if I didn't see that magic number."

(Source: www.newrichmon-news.com)

Labels: eating disorder, bulimia, anorexia, body building

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A new form of bulimia nervosa is getting the attention of medical professionals. Exercise bulimia, also referred to as compulsive exercise, is when an individual binge eats and then uses excessive and compulsive exercise to purge the calories from their bodies.

Exercise bulimics cannot stop themselves from exercising, and use exercise instead of more traditional purging methods associated with bulimia such as self-induced vomiting or laxative abuse.

Robyn Yamanaka, a professional fitness trainer and recovering exercise bulimic was interviewed by CBS News for a story on the eating disorder. She related how her eating disorder "started off innocently, (with workouts) maybe like three or four times a week. ... (But) it got to a point where I was working out three hours a day, if not more. I didn't take a day off for about 6 years. ... I have more health problems than someone who is overweight because I was underweight."

CBS News also spoke with Dr. Maryanne Rosenthal, clinical director of a San Diego-based inpatient treatment center for eating disorders. Dr. Rosenthal commented on the increasing number of cases of exercise bulimia: "I think (exercise bulimia) is becoming epidemic. An exercise bulimic is focused on the ritual of exercising, and that is that method of purging. People think they get a pass because they're not vomiting, they're not taking laxatives, so (they think) they're not really purging. It's very hard to diagnose, because exercise is great right?"

(Source: www.cbsnews.com)

Labels: bulimia, exercise addiction, exercise bulimia

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Recent research suggests that a few months of a specific type of talk therapy may help bulimia sufferers stop their unhealthy behaviors.

A multi-study review by Dr. Phillipa P.J. Hay at the University of Western Sydney in Australia found that bulimia-specific talk therapy (a form of cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT]) led to cessation of symptoms in approximately 37 percent of those treated.

By contrast, among bulimics on a waiting list for treatment, only 3 percent stopped binge-eating and purging.

The review included data on 3,054 adults living in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom who participated in weekly sessions of CBT for an average of 16 weeks.

Bulimia-specific CBT focuses on an individual's dietary habits and weight-related fears, and works to identify and deconstruct distorted thinking patterns. Patients learn to replace these unhealthy patterns with healthy coping strategies.

(Source: abcnews.go.com)

Labels: binge-eating, treatment, bulimia, therapy

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A study recently conducted in Sweden found that girls from well-educated families who do well at school may be at higher risk of developing an eating disorder.

The study, conducted by Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, followed more than 13,000 women born in Sweden between 1952 and 1989. Researchers found that as parents' or grandmothers' education increased, so did girls' risk of being hospitalized for anorexia or another eating disorder. The risk for eating disorders also increased in relation to the girls' own grades in high school.

The researchers commented on the findings: "It's possible that these girls feel more pressure from family to succeed -- which for some could translate into an obsession with controlling their eating and body weight."

Researcher Jennie Ahren-Moonga commented that pressure to succeed may be combined with other problems, such as lack of self-esteem. "This is even more relevant when combined with low self-esteem, as the feeling of not being able to live up to expectations plays a crucial role in both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa," she said.

(Source: www.reuters.com)

Labels: eating disorder, bulimia, teen eating disorders, anorexia

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Stephanie Pratt, a star on the MTV series "The Hills," recently revealed that she is struggling with bulimia. The star opened up about her battle with the eating disorder this week. She says she wanted to help increase awareness about the disorder and help others avoid it. Bulimic individuals have episodes of binge eating, after which they "eliminate" the consumed calories through self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives, or excessive exercise.

Following the star's confession, MTV interviewed Danielle Shelov, a psychologist at New York's Columbus Park Collaborative, to get more information on the causes of bulimia. Ms. Shelov stated that bulimia can be triggered by a number of different factors. "It can be a variety of things, usually something has gone on somewhere along the line that allows them to feel like something is missing, or something is lacking in their life, or maybe they feel out of control, or maybe they feel they have nothing that's their own. & So a lot of times the function of an eating disorder will be to have something of their own and to give them something to control."

(Source: www.mtv.com)

Labels: eating disorder, bulimia, stephanie pratt, mtv, the hills

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A new novel call Purge has been published by a Connecticut-based writer name Sarah Durer Littman. The novel, told in the first person in the format of a journal, is the story of Janie Ryan. Janie is a 16-year-old bulimic and the novel relates her experiences while receiving treatment at a fictional residential treatment facility called Golden Slopes. Janie's journal reveals the traumatic events that led to her development of an eating disorder, and how she developed bulimia as a sort of coping mechanism.

Littman comments about her novel's protagonist: "She is very much in denial of the disease and sort of has the attitude that this isn't a disease, it's a diet strategy. It's really about her growing realization and recognition of the fact that yes, she does have a condition that needs treatment and also her awareness of why she's doing what she's doing."

The novel is the product of Littman's real-life struggles with anorexia (as a teen) and bulimia (as an adult). The idea for the novel came to Littman while she was attending a writer's retreat in Vermont. In preparation for the novel, Ms. Littman asked her mother to send her some of her childhood pictures. She comments on looking at a picture of herself at age 15: "I looked at it, and I was like 'Wow, I actually had a pretty good figure,' but what made me really sad about the picture is that I remember how I felt at the time, which was fat and ugly."

Ms. Littman speaks about her motivation for the novel: "I want people to feel hopeful. I wanted to show them that they can overcome eating disorders, if they go through the proper therapy and build a support system. ... Hopefully the book will help to raise awareness and to generate a discussion about body image and eating disorders and the pressures on both young women and men."

(Source: stamfordtimes.com)

Labels: eating disorder, bulimia, books

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Many people mistakenly believe that eating disorders were believed affect only Caucasian women. Little research was done on men or women of various races and ethnic backgrounds. Today, though, research results document the degree to which eating disorders and body image concerns impact men and women across racial and ethnic lines.

For example, examiner.com reports the following about bulimia among African American adults:

Research has been conducted on African Americans that showed that they are more prone to the eating disorder bulimia nervosa. Bulimia is not easily detectable at a glance because those who are bulimic are able to maintain their weight, but they do not maintain their food.

Additional studies are also finding an increasing number of men being affected by eating disorders, often in conjunction with obsessive levels of exercise.

To summarize: Regardless of a person's gender, racial background or ethnic history, eating disorders remain a very real (and very dangerous) threat.

 

Labels: body image, bulimia, epidemic

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