Weighing The Facts: ED info

Showing posts with label ED info. Show all posts

Eating Disorders Seen Around The Web: August 2, 2011

Profile: Sam Thomas-Men Get Eating Disorders Too
The Mirror

Sam Thomas, founder and project leader at Men Get Eating Disorders Too, entered the TalkTalk Digital Heroes Award in 2010 with the aim of making more people area of the issue of eating disorders amongst men and be a port of call for those affected or worried by it. And like many of the best projects, it was one that was born from personal experience.

Sam got the idea for Men Get Eating Disorders Too from his own experience with bulimia, which he experienced during his time school: “I used to get bullied quite badly, and used to run out of lessons and hide in the boys’ toilets. I’d often binge and purge, but didn’t think too much of it; of course, as a thirteen-year-old you don’t think about eating disorders and you certainly haven’t heard of bulimia.
“When I did start looking for help, I struggled because I was male. Only once I had recovered did I think to myself ‘hang on a minute, if I was a female....
Read Men Get Eating Disorders Too in full

Sexualization of Young Children Linked to Eating Disorder Development
AOL Healthy Living

As early exposure to themes of sex becomes the norm, children of younger ages are expressing discontent with their physical appearance. Results from a recent survey suggest that children rank body image among the highest of their concerns, above both self-confidence and social life. Recent research also suggests that nearly 50 percent of females between ages 11 and 16 would consider cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance.

These findings have striking implications about the factors comprising young children's self-image and esteem. Eating disorders are now presenting in children as young as 6 years old, with dieting becoming more common among those under the age of 10.

Such ardent focus on physical appearance also comes in response to overly-sexualized messages from the media.
Read Sexualization of Young Children Linked To EDs in full

Mental Health: Eating Disorders
BBC News

Every year about 20 people in Britain die from anorexia - the eating disorder which compels them to deprive their bodies of food.

It is thought that about 165,000 Britons have some sort of eating disorder.
Most sufferers are female, although the latest evidence suggests about one in ten is now a male.
One person who developed anorexia at the relatively late age of 27 is Victoria Buchan, who lives near Grampound Road in mid Cornwall.

She admitted for a while she did her best to hide the anorexia from her doctor.
"There was always a response, always something I could hide behind," she said.
"Because of wearing baggy clothes they might not have seen I was losing weight."
Read Mental Health: Eating Disorders in full

Quick Hit: The Fat Femme’s Guide to Lovin’Summer
Happy Bodies

Aimee Fleck, a fantastic student at the Maryland Institute College of Art, made a little zine called The Fat Femme’s Guide to Loving Summer. Inside there are interviews with some really foxy ladies, instructions on how to make friendship bracelets, a recipe for beignets, new hairstyles to try, a playlist, and lots of suggestions for great summer fashion. It’s all beautifully, colorfully drawn and very well designed, plus sassy and fun. The zine is also getting plenty of tumblr love, which makes me really happy.
Read The Fat Femme's Guide in full

10 Questions To Ask Yourself About Anger
Hope Forward

By no means am I suggesting that the answers to the following questions are easy, readily available to you, or in any way obvious, though some may be. I think, rather, that they may serve as guide posts toward progress, relief, and insight. While anger is not always the culprit, it does often lurk underneath depression, anxiety, restlessness, discontent, or irritability. While certain angers are clear and apparent, others are more subtle. I think it pays to pay attention to them. Having anger does not mean that you are an angry person, that you have a temper; it just means that you have real feelings, some old, some new, and that tending to them may improve your life in many ways. How we feel anger, what we do with it, is usually based on a mix of genetic, hormonal, biochemical and socialcultural factors. Given that, we can ask ourselves the following questions in our quest to feel better.

1) How was anger expressed or suppressed in my family?

2) What are my earliest memories of feeling angry? With whom? For what? What other feelings do these memories bring up?
Read 10 Questions in full

Genetics Complicate Recovery From Eating Disorders
Psych Central

Sadly, people with eating disorders often face a long-term battle. Those with anorexia nervosa, for instance, are often severely underweight and have a high likelihood of dying from malnutrition.

Now, a new study sheds light on why some people have poor outcomes.

An international team of scientists has identified possible genetic variations that could influence a patient’s recovery from an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Researchers believe their findings may augment development of effective interventions for the most treatment-resistant patients with these disorders.
Read Genetics Complicate Recovery in full

EDs Seen Around The Web: November 2010

When Mom Has an Eating Disorder, Everybody Suffers
parentdish.com

It's every mom's nightmare: Finding out your daughter has an eating disorder. Even worse is knowing you're probably to blame.

Teresa Coates, a 40-year-old mom and solo parent of two, was anorexic in high school. She survived on 3 Musketeers bars and not much else. After high school she continued her bizarre eating habits until one day she went into convulsions at work and was rushed to the hospital. The ER doctor told her if she ever wanted to have children, which she did, she would have to start eating.

Teresa's daughter recently turned 13 and she worries about her. A lot. "I worry genetically about my daughter because I come from a family of very heavy women. And that was a concern when she came home from the hospital. I remember being worried about that. It's a hard thing to know you're genetically predisposed to not be thin."

She does feel, however, that her daughter is off to a much better start than she was at her age. "I came from a real working-class family. We didn't eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and the vegetables we ate came from cans. My take on healthy food wasn't really there. I've been cognizant trying to teach both my kids how to tell if food is good for you. They both read labels, a lot. They eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. They're very aware that you need to drink water."

But that doesn't mean it's easy.
Read in full: When Mom Has An ED

Making Sense of ED Mortality Statistics
ANAD.org
By Kathy Chen, MA
Chicago Professional School of Psychology

The topic of eating disorders (EDs) and mortality can be particularly sensitive because of the controversial findings in the research and perhaps their implications. The common belief appears to be that EDs, especially anorexia nervosa (AN), are associated with a low rate of survival. Many factors influence the results of research regarding EDs and mortality; yet, the more confusing point seems to be the ways in which these results are recorded. Therefore, reviewing the research and examining the methods that lead to a study’s results could provide mental health professionals as well as friends and families with a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between mortality and EDs.

The first step to understanding the relationship between mortality and EDs is to study the specific parts of information presented in the research. First, there are multiple definitions used to determine the rate of death in EDs (Neumärker, 2000). For instance, the term “mortality rate” is different from the term, “standardized mortality ratio.” The mortality rate is usually expressed as the number of deaths per 100,000 of the population, whereas the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) is the number of observed deaths divided by the number of expected deaths in a specific population. In addition, when authors write of mortality rate, they usually refer to the crude mortality rate, which includes the number of deaths out of the total number of people studied during a specific amount of time. Let me give you a simple example. Let’s imagine we are researchers who have 100 people in our study. If we check back with these people in 10 years and find that 5 of them have passed away, then the crude mortality rate would be 5 percent. To calculate the SMR, let’s again think of a simple example. We are researchers who have 100 people in our study. This time these 100 people are adolescent females with AN. We observe that 50 of them have died within a certain amount of time. However, let’s say that the expected number of deaths for adolescent females without an ED is 10. Therefore, the SMR in this hypothetical example would be 5. This result means that the sample of adolescent females with AN has a level of mortality that is 5 times greater than the average adolescent female population without an ED. Though these terms may seem similar, they can nonetheless impact the ways in which readers interpret these results. Thus, when one reads research findings, one would likely want to be aware of the different ways that mortality is measured for the purpose of having a more comprehensive understanding of the research findings.
Read in full: Making Sense of ED Mortality Statistics

Binging to Lose the Bulge: The Dangers of Drunkorexia
richlandchronicle.com

The disorder ‘anorexia' isn't a new one, but the dangerous eating disorder has now found a new partner. Drunkorexia is a new slang term used to describe people who don't eat in order to save the calories for their alcoholic beverages later.
Although it's not an official medical term, drunkorexia is starting to become widely known across college campuses. College students seem to be the main target, and narrowing it down further, female college students.
The restriction of food in order to binge on drinking is the same concept as other deadly eating disorders including bulimia.
During an interview with ABC News, Savannah, a 22-year-old graduate from the University of Texas talked about her experience being a proclaimed ‘drunkorexic'.
"It was just something I always did while in college as a normal part of my diet so that I could stay skinny but still go out and drink," Savannah said. "I do know a lot of people who skip meals to drink, drink heavily and don't gain any weight. Obviously, their success in this way encourages others to try it. I've done [drunkorexia] for years and I'm still healthy. I'm still skinny."
Read in full: The Dangers of Drunkorexia

University Course to Study Bulimia and Anorexia

walesonline

by Helen Turner, South Wales Echo

EATING disorders are to be studied by students and professionals at a new course launched by Cardiff University.
The Collaborative Working in Eating Disorders module, run by the university’s School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies is the first of its kind in Wales and supports the implementation of a recent Assembly Government report.
In Wales, more than 1,000 new cases of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are diagnosed each year.
Such disorders can lead to enduring mental health problems often affecting sufferers’ physical, social and psychological wellbeing.
Read in full: University Course to Study

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