Eating Disorders

Eating disorders affect all races and ethnic groups. Genetics, environmental factors, and personality traits all combine to create risk for an eating disorder.

What are Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are illnesses in which the people experience severe disturbances in their eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions. People with eating disorders typically become pre-occupied with food and their body weight.

Eating disorders affect several million people at any given time, most often women between the ages of 12 and 35. There are three main types of eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.

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Types of Eating Disorders

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is diagnosed when patients weigh weigh less than the normal BMI (body mass index) healthy weight expected for their height. Hallmarks of anorexia include:

Limited food intake/ binge-eating purging behavior
Fear of being “fat”
Denial of low body weight
Distorted body image

Bulimia Nervosa

Many people don’t know when a family member or friend has bulimia nervosa because people almost always hide their binges. Since they don’t become drastically thin, their behaviors may go unnoticed by those closest to them.

Patients with bulimia generally have a restrictive eating pattern or binge-eat and then purge but remain in normal BMI.

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder involves frequent overeating during a discrete period of time (at least once a week for three months), combined with lack of control and associated with three or more of the following:

Eating more rapidly than normal
Eating until feeling uncomfortably full
Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating
Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed or very guilty afterward

Behind Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders frequently appear during the teen years or young adulthood but may also develop during childhood or later in life. These disorders affect both genders, although rates among women are higher than among men. Like women who have eating disorders, men also have a distorted sense of body image. For example, men may have muscle dysmorphia, a type of disorder marked by an extreme concern with becoming more muscular.Researchers are finding that eating disorders are caused by a complex interaction of genetic, biological, behavioral, psychological, and social factors. Type A personalities have a greater incidence of eating disorders. Researchers are using the latest technology and science to better understand eating disorders.One approach involves the study of human genes. Eating disorders run in families. Researchers are working to identify DNA variations that are linked to the increased risk of developing eating disorders.

How we treat Eating Disorders?

Adequate nutrition, reducing excessive exercise, and stopping purging behaviors are the foundations of treatment. Treatment plans are tailored to individual needs and may include one or more of the following: