Anorexia And Bulimia Eating Disorders

Eating disorders occur in two forms: anorexia nervosa, or bulimia nervosa. Both characters are dangerous to health and even lives of the sick person and the two slowly grow to the level of the epidemic. In Anorexia person consists in the fact that the sick person gradually reduces the amount of food you eat, sometimes limiting them to a few selected or prepared in an appropriate manner. In Bulimia is the inverse of anorexia. The person has a healthy appetite, is unable to stop yourself from eating more and more food. It does not help request or prohibitions. Sometimes, immediately after a meal causes vomiting or taking laxatives.

As an eating disorder, anorexia nervosa is complicated as well as dangerous. A person with anorexia has an intesne fear of gaining weight; refuses to eat enough to get adequate nutrition; loses at least 15 percent of his or her body weight; insists that there is fat on his or her body, even when none exists; in preoccupied with his or her body imagine. Anorexia affects a person physically. Person with anorexia, is afraid of getting fat, so she or he avoid eating, The result is weight loss. At first, the drop in weight may not be noticeable or look unhealthy. But in a short time, the weight loss becomes dramatic and threatens your mental and physical health. Anorexia affects all of body functions. As the disorder progresses, digestion slows down and person become constipated. Person is always cold because of lost the protective layer of fat that insulates person. Fine hair, called lanugo, grows all over person’s body. If person is female, her menstrual period stops. Person also wills look and feel tired, have a pasty complexion, feel weak, lose hair and have spells and headaches. The soles of palms and feet turn yellow because body is lacking many of the nutrients it needs to function properly. When body isn’t getting enough nutrition from food, body will start to break down muscles in order to produce energy. Liver and kidneys are damaged from this stress, leading to kidney failure. This can be fatal, or require to be on dialysis for the rest of life. Anorexia may females infertile, or unable to have children, because fertility depends on having a certain amount of body fat. He or she also may develop osteoporosis- a condition in which they bones become brittle and may even break. Person’s heart can be especially affected. Anorexia disturbs the mineral balance in their body, which can cause cardiac arrest and death. Anorexia often begins because of emotional reasons. People who suffer from eating disorders are trying to use food as a way to fill

emotional needs, such as love and belonging, or to ease loneliness. Yet anorexia actually worsens a painful emotional cycle. He or she becomes stressed out when they around food because they feel tempted to eat. And if person does eat, feel defeat and regret- may even hate self. These feelings become so overwhelming; it’s common for depression to set in. Anorexia makes it hard for person to think and perceive things normally. When person’s body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs, adrenaline run on ( a hormone that kicks in when person is fearful or stressed ) instead of on energy from food. These chemical changes affect personality. He or she have wider mood swings and a quicker temper. Also, the more weight she or she lose, the more distorted their body imagine becomes. Person see fat on the body when really are dangerously thin. If person have anorexia, chances that also had a bout with another eating disorder. Anyone can gets anorexia- male or female, young or old, and from all walks of life. However, anorexia is much more common in teens than in adults. It seldom sets in after age twenty-five. There also is a higher rate of anorexia among females than among males. This may be because society puts much more pressure on young woman than on young men to be thin.

When someone suffers from bulimia nervosa or bulimia, he or she binges( or uncontrollably eats a large quantity of food in a short time ) and purges( or eliminates the food, usually by vomiting, using laxatives, or taking as water pills ). Bulimia also major damage to the body. It can cause ulcers (holes or tears ) in the stomach, throat, and mouth. People with bulimia can develop yellow, damaged teeth from the acids bought up into the mouth through repeated vomiting. Abusing laxatives causes painful stomach cramps and weakens the digestive system. Compulsive eating is a disorder in which a person eats uncontrollably but doesn’t purge afterward. People with compulsive eating disorder eat large amounts of food very quickly whether or not they feel hungry. They usually do this in private and feel unable to control how much or what they eat. If a person overeats regularly, he or she may forget how to read the body’s normal hunger signals and not know how to satisfy them. Other problems-compulsive exercise and abuse of medicines and drugs- also accompany eating disorders. Compulsive exercise is an unhealthy drive to over-exercise in order to burn calories and stay thin. This may mean running dozens of miles a day or vowing to do twenty sit-ups for every bite of food that person take. Compulsive exercise puts stress on your organs and joints, causing stress fractures and torn muscles. Some people with bulimia induce vomiting by sticking their fingers into their throats.

Other people have used a spoon or a toothbrush to induce vomiting. Some people are able to vomit spontaneously by turning their necks. Bulimics have also used chemical agents such as soap solutions. Perhaps most dangerous is the use of ipecac syrup, which is used by physicians to induce vomiting in situations like drug overdoses. Ipecac syrup stays in the body for a long time. Repeated use can result in heart disturbances, and can be fatal. Some people who binge on food may not plan to vomit; vomiting can happen as a reaction to excessive eating. There is an account of a patient who ate so much food in the afternoons and evenings that it could only be described as “ unbelievable”. The medical complications of bulimia are much less likely to be life-threatening than those of anorexia, where the person’s weight may become dangerously low. Nonetheless, bulimia can cause difficulties in various systems of the body. Depletion of body fluids through vomiting and through the use of laxatives and diuretics can change the chemical balances that are essential in regulating our bodies. The loss of potassium can be very serious. With

Inadequate levels of potassium, the patient may complain of muscular weakness. He or she may experience disturbances in heart rhythms. There is a possibly as sudden death. In many bulimic patients the salivary glands are swollen, which can cause the face to look puffy. It is not certain why this occurs. Several Explanations have been offered by researchers, including the regurgitation of acid from the stomach. Swelling of the glands may begin a few days after a binging episode. Dental problems are very common consequences of bulimia. Constant vomiting fills the mouth with stomach acids, which erode tooth enamel. As is true for anorexia, research on the family relationships of bulimics patients is still somewhat limited. Researchers have reported that bulimic patients view their families as begin less cohesive than do woman without eating disorders. Bulimic Families are also described as more conflicted and less supportive. Perhaps the best way to begin to understand bulimia is to examine the way many bulimics think about their bodies. Researchers have observed that bulimics were preoccupied with their weight and body size. Many Bulimics have a marked fear of becoming fat and a belief that they are fat when they are not. They have convinced themselves that they are overweight. Many bulimics have a distorted idea of what they ought to weight. Not only do they wish to be more slender than they are, they want to be at a weight below what is considered the minimum for their height. They have an anorexic-like wish.

Anorexia and bulimia is a problem that everyone experiences differently. The definitions, rules, frames are not able to characterize the magnitude of physical and psychological damage, posed by this disease. To reach out to people suffering from bulimia or anorexia should approach it with sensitivity and empathy. Treatment is usually long-term therapy, in which whole families are involved. But most important is the awareness of the risks at the same mentally ill person. Without wishing to be recovered, we cannot help much, but often enough that someone's presence, understanding and support. Bulimia and anorexia is a debilitating, dangerous disease, with which you have to fight. Typically used psychological therapy, which aims primarily to draw attention to the patient's problems and teach him to deal with them. The most difficult process in the road to recovery is to open up for help. Bulimia less often leads to death. Both diseases frequent in girls, and physiological reasons for this binds to the fact that the boys put on weight is associated mainly with the development of muscle au girls appears not accepted adipose tissue.

Titles of the books:

1. “Anorexia Nervosa: When food is the enemy”

2.” Anorexia and Bulimia”

Sylwia Gaca 03/01/11