These disorders have existed from ages, but stress and opening of more fast food points has made these disorders more common. Before labeling oneself with any eating disorders, following medical conditions need to be ruled out.
• Diabetes mellitus or family history of diabetes or any hormonal disorder.
• Lack of deworming or wrong deworming.
• Thyroid disorders.
An eating disorder is an illness that causes serious disturbances to your everyday diet, such as eating extremely small amounts of food or severely overeating, which with passage of time gets out of control.
Eating disorders frequently appear during the teen years or young adulthood but may develop later in life too. They frequently coexist with other illnesses such as anxiety , or depression .
• Anorexia Nervosa
• A relentless pursuit of looking slim and unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy weight.
• Intense fear of gaining weight.
• Wrong body image, low self esteem that is heavily influenced by perceptions of body weight and shape, or a denial of the seriousness of low body weight.
• Lack of menstruation among girls and women.
• Extremely restricted eating.
Most people with anorexia nervosa see themselves as overweight, even when after checking weight or consulting a doctor they find themselves underweight according to various scientific parameters.
Sometimes patients indulge in heavy eating which is then followed by extreme starvation like dieting, excessive exercise, self induced vomiting.
Long term complications can be
• Dry and yellowish skin.
• Hair fall.
• Pain in bones.
• Anemia.
• Slow damage to structure and functioning of heart.
• Infertility.
• Drop in internal body temperature , causing a person to feel cold all the time
• Sleep disturbance.
Bulimia Nervosa
This disorder is characterized by frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food and feeling lack of control over these episodes. Unlike anorexia nervosa, people with this disorder maintain a normal weight or are overweight. They also have no concern for body size or shape. Other symptoms are
• Acid reflux disorder and other digestive problems.
• Electrolyte imbalance[too low or high levels of sodium ,calcium, potassium] which can lead to heart attacks.
• Damage to teeth as a result of exposure to stomach acid.
Like females who have eating disorders, males also have a distorted sense of body image. Some may have muscle dysmorphia, a type of disorder that is characterized by an extreme concern with becoming more muscular. Patients see themselves as smaller than they really are want to gain weight. Men and boys then develop this dangerous trend of using steroids to increase muscle mass.
Treatment
The treatment team should consist of a counselor, endocrinologist and gynecologist.
arifmaghribi@yahoo.com