Eating Disorders In The News: September 2008

Treatment Can Help Break Cycle of Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder is defined as feeling out of control while eating a large quantity of food in a short period of time. Although it is the newest classification of eating disorders, more people suffer from binge eating disorder than anorexia and bulimia combined.

Unlike bulimia, people with a binge eating disorder do not purge, use laxatives, fast or engage in strenuous exercise as a means to get rid of extra calories.

As a result, most people with a binge eating disorder are overweight or obese. Because of this, they are at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, menstrual problems, sleep problems, gallbladder disease and certain types of cancer.

Read in full here.

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Struggling With An Eating Disorder

The numbers are hard to come by, and they're approximate, but experts say as many as 4 percent of all women will struggle with an eating disorder at some point in their lives.

The numbers are only estimates because so few victims are willing to admit their disease.

Read in full here.

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Increasing Number of Men Succumbing To "Good Looks and Anorexia"

Eating Disorders are no longer exclusively women’s territory, say the experts. In fact, the number of men suffering from anorexia has been on the rise for quite sometime now. Some even claim to have seen more male anorexia referrals than females.

Professor Hubert Lacey, the head of the eating disorder unit at St George's hospital in Tooting, south London, attributes the rise in male sufferers to greater social pressure on men to look good.

"Last week for the first time ever I had more male referrals for anorexia than female.

Read in full here.

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Drug Abused for Weight Loss; Deadly Similarity to Cocaine

(Rochester, N.Y.) -- Popping pills to lose weight is not a new practice. But the newest pill of choice, Adderall, is a prescription drug, that when abused, has effects similar to cocaine.

Adderall speeds up the metabolism and releases more dopamine to the brain, creating a sense of euphoria and decreasing appetite. Doctors use Adderall to treat hyperactivity and narcolepsy.

While it is a stimulant, it has a calming affect on patients. But. if abused, it can raise blood pressure and heart rate-which can be fatal.

Read in full here.

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The Number of Web Sites Promoting Anorexia and Bulimia Has Increased 470% Since 2006, According to Optenet Research


MIAMI, Sept 24, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Analysis of nearly three million random URLs also reveals that over one-third contain pornography
Optenet, a global IT security company and provider of high-performance content filtering solutions, today announced the results of a report showing that adult content on the Internet -- including pro-anorexia and bulimia, racism, violence and child pornography -- has significantly increased since the end of 2006.
The report utilizes Optenet's unique traffic analysis and classification engine for dynamic traffic, which combines artificial intelligence with traditional content filtering technology to categorize Web site and Web 2.0 content. The report tracks Internet content trends since the end of 2006, based on a random sampling of nearly three million Web sites from around the world. Key findings include:

-- Pro-anorexia and bulimia web sites have increased by 470 percent;

Read in full here.

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National Eating Disorders Assn. Issues Strategies For School To Identify, Assist Students With Eating Disorders

NEW YORK,, Sept 24, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- In response to an increasing demand from educators for hands-on strategies to deal with eating disorders among students, the National Eating Disorders Association has produced a toolkit of the latest information on how to identify and assist students at risk for anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder.

Guidelines for teachers, administrators and staff include:

Read in full here.

sources: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20080924/LIVING0106/809240335/-1/COLUMNS *www.cfnews13.com/Health/KnowYourNumbers/2008/9/23/struggling_with_an_eating_disorder.html*http://www.medindia.net/news/Increasing-Number-of-Men-Succumbing-to-good-Looks-and-Anorexia-42194-1.htm*http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=8f459f19-aa37-4c97-a572-6c17f065bf9b*http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/national-eating-disorders-assn-issues/story.aspx?guid={D7EF1684-FFB8-4432-BB28-62EED01F06EB}&dist=hppr*picture source: bigfoto.com

New Student Health Study: Teens, Eating Problems, and Anxiety

According to research published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, teens are dealing with eating problems at a much higher rate than may have previously been suspected. The studies involved 372 students between the ages of 15 and 17, with 57% being girls and 43% being boys. The health studies were done a year apart, involving the same students in each study.


The results showed:

• 18% of the participating students admitted to having eating problems in the first or second survey.

• 5% admitted to eating problems in both studies.

• Students who reported ongoing eating problems were more likely to also report multiple health complaints and psychological problems.

• Those with anxiety earlier in adolescence were 20x more likely to have ongoing eating problems.

• Teens dissatisfied with their appearance had recurring eating problems, reporting anxiety earlier in adolescence.

• 66 students reported eating problems: 23 reporting those problems only in the first survey, 24 only reporting them in the second survey, 19 reporting them in both surveys.

• Teens with previous problems with anxiety were much more likely to suffer sustained eating problems.

• Teens with no previous anxiety issues only experienced temporary eating problems and dissatisfaction with their appearance.

• Girls were 2x more likely to report eating problems on one occasion than boys.

• Girls were 5x more likely to have ongoing eating problems.

• 63 percent of the students who reported eating problems were normal weight, compared with 79 percent of the students who didn’t report any eating problems.

• 37 percent were overweight and none were underweight, compared with 20 percent and 1 percent of the students without problems.

"The researchers also found higher levels of psychological problems and health complaints in students who only reported eating problems in one of the two surveys."

“Our study backs up previous research that shows that eating problems often fluctuate in children of this age and in 50 to 60 percent of cases last about one to two years” says Lea Hautala. “However in ten per cent of cases their eating problems can persist into adulthood.

“Although almost a fifth of the students who took part in our study reported eating problems at some point, these problems clearly sorted themselves out in the majority of cases. However, one in twenty students continued to report problems.

“We believe that our results point to the need for schools to screen adolescents with psychological problems or multiple health complaints for eating problems, as these are the two key predictive factors that emerged from our study.”

Sources: http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/06/05/teen-eating-problems-and-anxiety/2412.html
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Lea Hautala from the Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic at the University of Turku, Finland
Wiley_Blackwell
picture source: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

Eating Disorders: Recent News Articles

Ask your father: why are you on a diet? Timesonline

Flora, aged 10, wants to know why she has to eat all her dinner when Mummy is on a diet.

The answer really depends on what sort of diet you are on. If you swing chaotically between feast and famine, there is no positive way of explaining your attitude to food to your daughter. If, however, you are trying to adopt long-term healthier eating habits, there is no harm in being honest.

But let's be realistic; wanting to feel “healthier” usually means hoping to look slimmer. A child inevitably picks up on this, as well as your general attitude towards body image and eating.

So look out for the words you use when you talk about yourself. Be aware of those moments when you catch yourself in the mirror and say, “God, I look like a melted candle from the waist down”, while your daughter watches on, soaking up the jaded self-criticism like a sponge. Avoid too the pitfall of branding certain foods as “good” or “bad”. Never say, for instance, “Aren't you lucky you can eat chocolate, while poor old Mummy has to stick to boring salads.”

Read in full here.

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Brittany Snow: Dieting Was 'My Best Friend' People

"I remember looking around at all these women who were on the soap opera who were working out and dieting," Snow says. Taking their cue, a 12-year-old Snow tried her first diet, called Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type. "I took it to the extreme," the Hairspray star admits, which included a two-month stint when she "lived on pineapple." After losing 10 lbs. on the diet, Snow says she heard compliments and felt accepted by those around her. Soon it was a feeling she couldn't get enough of. "It kind of progressed into this thing where I needed to always be dieting and losing weight and more weight," she says in the site's interview series Half of Us, which addresses mental health issues and ways to get help. "It became my life and I didn't have any friends and this was definitely my best friend and I held on to it really tight."
Read in full here.

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Teens' help gives hope: North Shore News

Looking to make a difference in their community, three North Vancouver teenagers founded the charitable company Help Gives Hope ... the students established Help Gives Hope in February, a charitable company that seeks to help North Shore teens deal with various issues.

"We are teenagers ourselves and we have been in tough situations that deal with certain issues," Brennan said. "Teenagers are more receptive to people who have been in their situation. A lot of times when adults try and help teens, they mean well but a lot of it doesn't come across as well as if a teen is saying it. That's why we can help."

The company sells T-shirts with all proceeds going to three non-profit organizations: the Looking Glass Foundation for Eating Disorders, the West Coast Alternatives Society and A Place to Call Home.

"We picked these organizations because they are all non-profit and not governmentally funded," he said. "They also deal with three big issues facing teenagers -- eating disorders, drugs and alcohol, and homelessness."

Read in full here.

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When Eating Is The Enemy: Sun Post

... Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, or FA, is a nationally recognized support group that helps members battle food issues. Some members are fighting overeating, some undereating and others bulimia, but all are looking for a way to control their eating habits.

After more than three years in the program, Ray, a 76-year-old Tracy resident, said several of his weight-related health problems are cured. (Because the group operates on the same principals as Alcoholics Anonymous, members are not allowed to give their last names.)

“It saved my life,” Ray said. “I was a pre-diabetic with sleep apnea, high blood pressure and a cancer survivor, and now it’s all gone.”

Read in full here.


Sources:
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4269096.ece http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20058701,00.html
http://www.canada.com/northshorenews/news/look/story.html?id=60ddb5b8-0d9e-48a8-8e61-d7a5a3fce549
http://sunpost.net/content/view/2040/173/
picture:http://www.freefoto.com

EATING DISORDERS: In The News

ABC News: Eating Disorders Rising in Pre-Teens: Study

By National medical reporter Sophie Scott

A study has found that younger children are increasingly being diagnosed with eating disorders like anorexia.

Child and adolescent psychiatrist at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital, Dr Sloane Madden, studied children under 13 years old with eating disorders.

Dr Madden found children as young as eight years old were being diagnosed with anorexia and she says most children were diagnosed at the age of 11 - and many ended up in hospital.

"At least 50 per cent of the children had severe complications from their starvation," she said.

Read article in full here.

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Children As Young As Six Suffering Eating Disorders

By: Thewest.com.au

Australian children as young as six are presenting at hospitals with eating disorders so advanced that almost half require forced feeding to save their lives, a study has found. New data has confirmed that anorexia and starvation are becoming increasingly common among children, with a third of cases seen in under 18-year-olds now occurring in kids under 13. The disease in children is more severe than teenagers and adults because it is being picked up too late, say specialists releasing the data at a psychiatry congress in Melbourne tomorrow.

Australia has, proportionately, more than double the number of extreme cases reported in both the United Kingdom and Canada.

“This is an extremely concerning situation because these kids are very, very unwell,” said lead researcher Dr Sloane Madden, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital.

“We in Australia are much poorer at recognizing this as a problem and getting these children treated.” Read article in full here.
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Students Take On A Cause:

byJ.D. GRAVENOR The Gazette, Canada

Speak the truth. Be straight up. Tell it like it is. From a very early age, we are all encouraged to discuss what's on our mind. After all, honesty is the best policy, right?

Well, it's not always that simple. We are also taught the opposite message, that some things you just don't talk about in public.

But sometimes silence can lead to bad things. In the case of eating disorders, a refusal to admit the problem to others can result in serious mental and physical illness - sometimes even in death.

Read article in full here.

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Parents Lead In Anorexia Fight

Adam Cresswell, Health editor

A NEW way of tackling anorexia that gives parents the prime role in insisting their child eats properly is winning official backing after promising results at hospitals that have adopted it.

The Maudsley Approach is being piloted by NSW Health in Campbelltown, in southwest Sydney, where health professionals are being asked to use it for new patients seeking treatment for the eating disorder.

If successful, the method - named after the London psychiatric hospital where it was developed in the 1980s - will be rolled out across the state.

The Maudsley Approach is drug-free and allows anorexic adolescents to be cared for at home. Parents are taught how to insist the child eats, and to allow a staged acknowledgment of the child's autonomy as weight and healthy eating patterns are regained.

Studies have shown that two-thirds of adolescent anorexia patients recovered by the end of treatment, and 75 to 90 per cent were of normal weight after five years.

Read article in full here.

Sources:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/28/2257501.htm
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=158&ContentID=75544
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/youthzone/story.html?id=48a5c00d-d168-419d-9e10-6d242e8dcfae
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4745557532710220248
Picture source:www.bigfoto.com

Recently In The News: Eating Disorders

When Body Matter Matters By Smriti Daniel

"From billboards to television shows, from the catwalks to the fashion magazines, it has always been apparent that being "good looking" in our times, is sometimes as simple as just being slim. However, being underweight is not always a choice, and can sometimes be a symptom of an underlying disease, says Dr. Senaka Rajapakse, Consultant Physician, and Senior Lecturer in Medicine, at the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo."

"This week, he speaks to Mediscene about what exactly it means to be underweight and the impact your weight has on your wellbeing..."

This article includes the following subjects:

*Being underweight - when is it normal and when is it a health problem?

*What about voluntary weight loss?

*How seriously does it impact overall health?

*Can the ill effects be reversed?Read article in full here.

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - "Anorexic women with a history of childhood anxiety may have particularly severe symptoms of the eating disorder, a study suggests."

"It's known that anxiety disorders, like social phobia and obsessive compulsive disorder, are far more common among people with anorexia than in the general population. Often, these anxiety disorders appear before the eating disorder does."

"In the new study, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, researchers looked at whether a history of childhood "overanxious disorder" was related to the severity of women's anorexia."

"Dr. Cynthia M. Bulik, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues found that of 637 women with anorexia, 39 percent reported symptoms of childhood overanxious disorder. In nearly all cases, those symptoms arose before the onset of their anorexia." Read article in full here.

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The New Face Of Eating Disorders: Starve, binge, purge cycle on rise among Mid-life women.
By: Sharon Kirkey, Canwest News Service

"It allows them to feel a sense of accomplishment in a world that might feel very chaotic and out of control."

Dr. Lara Ostoloksy says more older women are seeking help partly because eating disorders don't hold the same stigma they once did."

"The thinking used to be that there was no biological component to them, ``so that if a person is having eating disordered behaviours like binging and vomiting and laxative (abuse) and starving themselves, it was all an attention- seeking behaviour. The research now says that's entirely not the case...''

Read article in full here.

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sources: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/080518/MediScene/mediscene-000_05.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080516/hl_nm/anxiety_anorexia_dc
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=b70c33d9-5b74-4b37-bb02-ed47400b6762&p=2
picture source: http://www.norcalblogs.com/watts/images/newspaper.jpg