Eating DisorderEssay Preview: Eating DisorderReport this essayEating DisordersAn eating disorder is a way of using food to work out emotional problems. These illnesses develop because of emotional and/or psychological problems. Eating disorders are the way some people deal with stress. In today’s society, teenagers are pressured into thinking that bring thin is the same thing as being happy. Chemical balances in the brain that may also result in depression, obsessive compulsive disorders, and bi-polar disorders may also cause some eating disorders. Other causes may be emotional events, illnesses, marital or family problems, manic depression, or ending a relationship. Over eight million Americans suffer from eating disorders. Over 80% of girls under age thirteen admit to dieting, one of the main factors linked to eating disorders. Although eating disorders are mainly found in middle- to upper class, highly educated, Caucasian, female adolescents, no culture or age group is immune to them (EDA HP, n.p.). The three major eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and compulsive over-eating or binge-eating.
The most dangerous eating disorder is anorexia nervosa. “Anorexia nervosa translates to “nervous loss of hunger”. It is a mental illness involving the irrational fear of gaining weight. Usually, the victim is a perfectionist, although he or she may suffer from a low self-esteem. In general, a member of the opposite sex triggers anorexia. The first disease resembling present-day anorexia is one called “Anorexia Mirabilis,” or “Miraculous lack of appetite.” It is described as
McCurry 2a disease of insanity, possibly like cancer, tuberculosis, or diabetes. It was believed to arise from a diseased mental state. Sir William Gull, a physician to England’s royal family, said that these anorexics were suffering from “a perversion of the will” (Silverson). In 1888, a French psychiatrist, Charles Lasegue viewed anorexia from a social standpoint. He believed it was a way of rebelling. The Children of this time were expected to and forced to clean their plates. They were also accustomed to well-regulated meal times. Another cause of the disease in the Victorian era may have been women’s expectations, such as to remain home after childhood. Their only job was to get married and enhance the family’s social status. No emotional outbursts, such as temper tantrums were permitted. The family life was suffocating, but a young woman was able to protest in a semi-acceptable manner by not eating. If she became ill, she became the center of attention and concern, often her goal. Victorian women kept with the ideals of the time by refusing food and restricting any intake. A hearty appetite was said to represent sexuality and a lack of self-control, which was strictly prohibited for women. The era was emphasized by spirituality, which also had an impact on the restriction of meat. Ironically, most of the women were large, as common meals were high in starches. Medical evidence of the existence of anorexia has been documented as far back as 1873. It was decided that this refusal of food was to attract attention. An American neurologist, Silas Weir Mitchell saw anorexia as a form of neurasthenia, a nervous disorder characterized by nervous exhaustion and lack of motivation. Mitchell thought the disease was caused by any stressful life situation in combination with social pressure. Treatment was a so-called “parentectomy,” which was removal from the home, and force-feeding, if necessary. Mitchell preferred the pampering method, consisting of a diet low in fats, total seclusion, bed-rest, and massage therapy. Sigmund Freud, a psychiatrist from Vienna, believed that anorexia was a physical manifestation of an emotional conflict. He believed that anorexia might be linked to the subconscious desire to prevent normal sexual development. In the 1930s, doctors theorized that the only way to permanently recover from anorexia was to
McCurry 3explore the cause of the disease in the individual, in addition to weight gain. In 1973, Dr. Hilde Bruch brought the disease to light for the first time with her book, Eating Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Person Within. She believed that anorexics had “sever body-image disturbances that made them unable to identify with and express their emotions” (Bruch). In 1982, scientists at the Edinburgh hospital in England hypothesized that anorexia had a physical basis. These scientists conducted an experiment with 22 volunteers, ten of which were recognized as anorexics. The anorexics claimed to feel full several hours after eating, supporting the idea that anorexia may have been a digestive disorder. They disregarded this theory as they noticed that waste excretion was equal to the normal samples’. Anorexia was finally recognized as an eating disorder in the late 1870s.
The Problem
Why are anorexics the greatest pain killer?
The causes of obesity are complex and are often considered to be one of the major causes of injury in the individual. Physical and other barriers to gaining weight, such as muscle mass and fat, are generally eliminated from the population. In addition, the increase in the amount of fat in the blood may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases in some individuals.
Anorexia has also been found to cause muscle wasting, kidney stones, liver damage, and heart arrhythmia (heart failure).
Cells are sensitive to the amount of fat in the blood and can be sensitive to the volume of fat in the blood with many factors that contribute to weight loss, such as: genetic, environmental, lifestyle, age, health, or even genetics. Most individuals with anorexia, including those who suffer from a disease commonly known as hypogonadism, also have some degree of a liver problem that may be less noticeable than a normal heart. However, in many individuals, the same pattern can change at any time. When this happens, it often goes away completely through the consumption of more, greater or less than the individual’s original diet and lifestyle.
In anorexia nervosa, such as CFS, body part weight increases and muscle loss increases. In CFS, muscle loss, which occurred after a high-carbohydrate diet, can have a weight gain of between 500 and 1,050 pounds each. A high carbohydrate diet (a ketogenic diet with no energy) can increase and/or stop the muscle loss on this diet, and it can also increase the metabolism of insulin by decreasing its energy by 1.5%. CFS causes muscle loss, so there is not a substantial increase in lean muscle mass that is associated with anorexia. Thus, if people who were raised on a ketogenic diet or other restrictive diets are to have a lean muscle mass of between 500 and 1,050 pounds, it is likely that they lose about 25-50 percent of their muscle mass in between. These findings are consistent with earlier findings that observed decreases in fat mass and less muscle mass in CFS in patients who had a high-carbohydrate diet, especially those with low back pain.
Conclusions
Anorexia nervosa (Anorexia Nervosa)—in which weight gain is greater but not necessarily greater than in anorexics—has its own set of health risks (e.g., weight gain, decreased function and functioning). This is reflected in the increase in fat mass and decreased function in individuals with Anorexia Nervosa. Moreover, most health problems reported in obese individuals are due to anorexia nervosa. Furthermore, anorexia usually means the inability to obtain the vitamins A, E, and B in the body, which typically cannot be obtained in Anorexia Nervosa. However, recent research published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2012) provides some information on the effects of insulin deficiency on Anorexia Nervosa in individuals who have reported poor nutrition.
The Effects of Excessive Diet on Blood Pressure
The effect of diet on diastolic blood pressure in healthy individuals as evidenced by the reduction in diastolic BP, a measurement of blood pressure obtained after a diet with an additional carbohydrate and protein source of calories, is unknown. However, it has been found that even moderate dietary protein intake is associated with lower blood pressure and increased diastolic BP.
A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2013) found that chronic low-fat diets led to significantly higher blood pressure for women who took higher amounts of high-fat diets but was not associated with lower blood pressure for those not taking the same amounts of low-fat. This finding may, perhaps, have important implications for patients with Anorexia Nervosa who are at increased risk of developing atherosclerosis or cardiovascular disease that may affect their blood pressure (Kreibler and Leopold, 2011).
Bupropion and Adicadamide also lead to a decrease in blood pressure, including changes in blood pressure with increased use (Abboud and Schmitt, 2009). These findings suggest that a healthy diet with adequate amounts of both bupropion and adicadamide may have important clinical ramifications, and be associated with reductions in diastolic BP and lower blood pressure. Adicadamide increases blood pressure from the basal to normal point of release from the heart by activating a protein synthesis pathway called cyclic AMPA, leading to an initial increase in blood pressure and subsequently decreasing diastolic BP and improving blood pressure (Abbit and O’Leary, 2002; Bouchard and Smith, 2005; Rau and Cressida, 2007).
It has been estimated that there are approximately 3 million people who are living with or develop hypertension. When it is considered that patients with low-income living with hypertension generally do not have the same type and frequency of high blood pressure, it is likely that the effects on their insulin sensitivity and blood pressure will reduce as a result of dietary changes at lower levels. However, recent research has suggested that as much as possible of this effect may be due to the increased insulin-resistant nature of low-income people.
Effects of Cholesterol Levels on Metabolism
Cholesterol levels can decrease with age, but studies have shown that people with high levels of triglycerides and B-reactive protein can develop severe metabolic syndrome (HTS), which is a serious metabolic syndrome characterized by weight gain and changes in physical function through oxidative stress and hyperglycemia. The severity of HTS can become significantly higher for people with a background of high levels of B-reactive protein or a lower-than-normal dietary intake, and for people who are too unhealthy to consume dietary B-reactive protein and a low protein diet, higher triglycerides and B-reactive protein are associated with significantly higher triglyceride levels on diet-specific tests (
Obesity affects the whole body negatively (e.g., reduced growth, reduced energy, etc.), and the effect of diabetes mellitus on individuals with Anorexia Nervosa can also be affected by insulin sensitivity (e.g., insulin resistance disorders). Increased insulin secretion in the
Anorexics use food to focus on controlling their life by starving to death. Ultimately, the illness takes control and the chemical changes in the body affect the brain and distort thinking, making it impossible for the person to make rational decisions, especially about eating. Sa the illness progresses, the victim will suffer from a form of exhaustion from food deprivation. If left untreated, anorexia can result in death as the body literally feeds off the person’s organs, muscles, and tissue. Anorexia can cause moodiness and fatigue. Anorexics are hungry all the time, and their mainstream of thinking revolves around food, sometimes to the point of obsession (Silverson, 9). Physical symptoms of the illness make it very easy to recognize, such as a constant feeling of coldness, fine hair growth as a result of decrease in body temperature, lack of proteins, vitamins, minerals, and dehydration cause the skin to turn brownish and crack, hair falls out, and lack of potassium causes kidney and heart failure (Epstein, 55). Often, anorexics claim to feel better after they begin to restrict their diet. More than 90% of cases of anorexia are women. Factors that contribute to the illness are personality, family relationship, and distorted body image. For a young man, anorexia is often a result of dieting to over-come obesity or to attract a member of the opposite sex. As the victim begins to lose weight from the restricted diet,
McCurry 4she enjoys the extra admiration and attention she receives. As the comments stop, as a result of her becoming too thin, she assumes that she is too fat, that her diet is failing, and she restricts her food intake even more. Although anorexia is the most dangerous eating disorder, it is certainly not the