Eating Disorders - A Silent Killer

Medical science has allowed medical and healthcare professionals to identify most, if not all disorders that plague humanity today. In many cases, the disorders inflict a great many number of people that it actually becomes commonly known, and therefore launches equally common known cures and treatments, which become quite popular with people easily. Some examples are the common byproducts of life today such as anxiety and depression.

The world we live in today can create so much stress for a person that it actually promotes the development of a disorder. This stress may also partially be blamed for the proliferation of the eating disorders among people. Many may not realize just how prevalent eating disorders can be amongst people, since it is not really a disorder that many address, at least not as popularly as depression and anxiety issues are addressed.

A recent study has shown that at least .5% of women and even .05% of men will manifest certain characteristics of anorexia nervosa at one point during their lives, with some of the people bearing the characteristics actually developing a full blown case of the disorder. A greater number of women, at least 3%, may manifest characteristics of bulimia at one point during their lives. Binge eating, however, remains the most prevalent eating disorder of all, being present in at least 2% of all living adults at any given time.

What is alarming, however, is the fact that the number of people suffering from the various eating disorders appear to be rising slowly but steadily over the years. Since first being documented and established as a disorder, the cases of people suffering from one form of eating disorder or another have more than tripled in number. This is quite alarming since there have been immense developments in the methods of treatment of the various physical and mental disorders known to man, and yet the number of people suffering from eating disorders appear to be on the rise, instead of decreasing.

In most cases, eating disorders appear to manifest more commonly in women than in men, as shown by studies in the field, where only about 10% of all patients diagnosed with eating disorders are men. Some contend, however, that this figure may never be accurately validated, since it is an established fact that people suffering from eating disorders have a knack of being totally secretive about it and will deny ever having it, much less seek help for their disorder, which has led doctors and medical professionals to speculate that there may actually be a bigger percentage of people with eating disorders that are unaccounted for, and thus, untreated.

Statistically, there have been much more people which have come out and sought medical help in treating sexually transmitted diseased or venereal diseases than people who have an eating disorder.

Most of people known to have eating disorders usually start manifesting it around the time of adolescence or even early adulthood. This condition is made worse by the fact that the transition between adolescence and adulthood is particularly fraught with much stress for the people going through that period. While there are no clear cut indicators as to what particular events trigger the development of an eating disorder in a person, it is generally attributed to instances wherein the person is subjected to much stress and anxiety, as in instances of violence, intense conflict, great physical stress, burgeoning peer pressure and even a lack of emotional support from the people the person expects support from.

Autor: Paul Aragones

If you want to know more about eating disorders and what options you have to treat it, you can visit this link http://eatingdisordertreatmentoptions.blogspot.com/.

Added: July 4, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Is Anorexia a Form of Brainwashing?

I have been interested for a long time regarding what makes people change their beliefs, mindset, and attitudes towards things. I firmly believe that most eating disorders are caused by people's wrong beliefs and attitudes towards themselves and others. Genetic predisposition also plays the role too.

Once I was reading an article about brainwashing. Brainwashing is any effort aimed towards instilling in the mind of one person different beliefs and attitudes that eventually make a person behave in a certain way and believe in certain things. Brainwashing was used a lot by communists to spread the mentality of communism. It was also used on war prisoners in the Korean war - when American soldiers after being captured and kept in Chinese camps sometimes ended up taking the side of the communists and considered themselves to be their supporters.

Brainwashing occurs when people join cults or weird religious groups. These change people's identity completely, just like anorexia changes people's identity completely.

So, you see, brainwashing is something that can change your total identity. The media does it all the time too. And not just only the media things like the culture you live in can also brainwash you.
When I was reading this - I thought: How much is brainwashing relevant to developing anorexia! Anorexics really become the victims of brainwashing: their whole value systems and thought-patterns are changed in a matter of months after contracting anorexia.

American Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lipton did a special research project on what's involved in brainwashing. He came up with a list of steps on brainwashing techniques:
1. Assault on identity
2. Guilt and shame
3. Self-betrayal
4. Breaking point
5. Leniency
6. Compulsion to confess
7. Channelling of guilt
8. Releasing of guilt
9. Progress and harmony
10. Final confession and rebirth

I believe anorexia goes through similar stages? I think it really does when you think about it. The only difference is that when people get brainwashed it is done deliberately by someone else. In the case of anorexia, people normally perceive events in their life and what happens to them and take it the wrong way then they become prisoners of their own thoughts and feelings.

I have analyzed the brainwashing steps above in relation to eating disorders and here is what I have come up with:

1. Assault on identity: when anorexia begins after an emotional event or a number of events, the anorexic starts to think that they are not who they should be and who they want to be. The person is under constant self-identity attacks for days, weeks or months, to the point that she/he becomes exhausted, confused and disoriented. In this state, their beliefs seem less solid. They look around for a substitute for their identity.

2. Guilt and Shame: Constant thoughts: "You are bad the way you are." They feel that their body is disgusting, they feel ashamed of their own body. When the development of anorexia coincides with the time of puberty - thoughts of being ashamed of their own body is associated with feelings of disgust about sex and intimacy and this can have dramatic consequences. Associations of guilt and shame about intimacy can end up being a lifelong sentence for many sufferers unless major neuroplastic changes are instigated later in life.

Eating can be also associated with guilt and this is a major reason why anorexia turns into bulimia at later stage of the disease for some sufferers. People begin to feel a general sense of shame, that everything they do is wrong.

Many researchers have shown that feelings of guilt are tightly associated with the development of eating disorders (especially bulimia and binge eating).

3. Self-betrayal: This is when the anorexia starts to tell her/him: "Agree with me that you are bad". And once the person is confused and drowning in guilt, these thoughts force them to withdraw from her/his family, friends and peers who are eating normally and enjoying their life. This betrayal of her/ his own trust in themselves and people close to them increases the shame and loss of identity that the person is already experiencing.

4. Breaking point: The sufferer is constantly asking her/himself: "Who am I, where am I and what am I supposed to do?" At this point the person has her/his identity in crisis, experiencing deep shame and guilt. Also, the person may undergo a "nervous breakdown." This may involve uncontrollable sobbing, deep depression and general disorientation and withdrawal.Not everyone has the same severity of symptoms but lots of people do have this exact reaction.

5. Leniency: The Anorexia then tells the sufferer:" Follow me - I can help you." Anorexics often believe that their anorexia is the only way of life they can follow. Performing anorexic behaviour - like starving, purging which brings them temporary relief of their feelings, although short lived. But then it demands more and more attention until the person becomes 100% consumed by their distorted anorexic thoughts and feelings.

6. Compulsion to confession: "I can help myself."
For the first time in the brainwashing process, the anorexic is faced with the contrast between the guilt and pain of identity and feelings of sudden relief and leniency. The person may feel a desire to talk to other people with the same problems and visit 'thinspiration" sites. (Sites that are set up by other sufferers to try and justify their inability to deal with their anorexia in the real world). They may start sharing their experiences about anorexia, give each other advice on a best diet, on tricks to induce vomiting, make competitions about who has lost the most weight etc. The sufferer starts to confess that anorexia is their life style.

7. Channelling of guilt: This is why you're in pain. After weeks or months of suffering, confusion, breakdown and moments of leniency, the person's guilt has lost all meaning - numbness replaces it all. This creates something of a blank slate that lets the anorexia in deeper and deeper into the soul. The anorexia attaches itself to the person's guilt and belief system opposite what healthy people have. For example, food is associated with guilt and shame.

It is the stage when anorexics start to display bad tantrums when parents try to feed them or persuade them to eat and stop their abnormal behaviour. They start to believe that anorexia is not an illness but it is a life style and associate their own self with the anorexia: they become one with the disease.

8. Releasing of guilt: It's not me; it's my beliefs. With her/his full confessions, the person has completed his/her psychological rejection of their former identity. The sufferer has gradually giving up all their previously enjoyable activities, left their job or college quite their university. All this is just for the sake of practicing the life style anorexia provides. People start joining pro-anorexia groups, forums, looking for justification etc.

9. Progress and harmony:" If you want, you can choose good." - say their "thinspiration" friends.
These "Thinspiration" friends introduce a new belief system as the path to "good." At this stage the anorexia stops to hurt, offering the sufferer physical comfort and mental calm in conjunction with their new belief system. People get a "team spirit "attitude with their friends who practice the same dangerous way of living.

10. Final confession and rebirth: Their mind equals their Anorexia that tells them:" I choose good."
Good is the anorexia. The person has no doubt in the righteousness of her/his choice to be anorexic. At this stage separating them self from the anorexia seems impossible. People continue practicing this dangerous way of living. Thousands of them die as a result of this sooner than later. Some can live longer but still eventually die from severe complications or commit suicide because of their starving and the fact they can't cope with life and can't evaluate things logically.

This is how the anorexic mind gets programmed (brainwashed) to be the way they are suffering from severe anorexia. Most eating disorder sufferers go through similar stages but often these stages happen differently for each sufferer and it is difficult to differentiate between them.

The purpose of this article is to show you what the brainwashing process is all about and that what happens in cults and in prisoner of war camps is similar to what happens in people with anorexia.

Also I want to point out that the phenomenon of anorexia is mainly in the relatively young.
People in the past didn't have anorexia to the same extend we have today. In the past single cases of anorexia was described only in people who starved themselves for religious purposes, cult purposes and the like. There were no anorexic cases reported of people striving to be thin for beauty sake or for prestige purposes.

This all points to anorexia being a modern disease: I believe caused by some beauty product advertisers and the media that promote beauty standards that are impossible to achieve by normal human beings. You can say that it is designed to make people buy more and more beauty and slimming products, making someone extremely rich, built on the suffering of many.

The solution to this problem is to teach young people and emphasise natural and internal beauty. To make young people strive for learning, studying and expanding their minds, not to strive for this unattainable look which some of the media and others portray as beautiful. For many young people to reach for this unattainable level only brings suffering, hardship and death.

Autor: Irina Webster Irina Webster
Level: Platinum
Dr Irina Webster MD is the 39 years old Director of Women Health Issues one of the Australia leading suppliers of information on women health ... ...

Dr Irina Webster MD is the Director of Eating Disorder Institute. She is a recognised authority in the eating disorders area. She is an author of many books and a public speaker. To learn more about anorexia and its causes go to http://www.eatingdisorder-institute.com

Added: July 2, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

9 Types of Food That Are Extremely Important For Your Eating Disorder Recovery

I am often asked what kind of food I would recommend for eating disorders sufferers that can help them to develop new neuronal pathways in order to stop their eating disorders. Of course my first suggestion would be to eat a balanced meal but I do have certain foods I can recommend to make brain changes easier. Here is my list:

1. Omega- 3 acid products: Omega -3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids but it cannot be manufactured by the body. For this reason omega-3 acids must be obtain from food. It helps to keep your heart in good shape, blood vessels and most importantly your brain. It as been proven by scientific experiments that omega-3 acids improve learning processes and makes your brain work clearer. Deficiency of Omega- 3 causes tiredness, lethargy, poor concentration and memory: plus a constant feeling of stress and anxiety. This is especially important to know for anorexics and bulimics because their body is normally lacking omega-3. And this contributes to even more mental and perception problems.

The list of food which contains lots of omega-3 (it is also considered the healthiest foods in the world) :
- Oily fish: salmon, tuna, halibut, herring, mackerel and others
- Nut oils: canola, flaxseed, walnut
- Soybeans
- Shrimps
- Snapper
- Tofu
- Scallops
- Winter squash

Important to Note: Research shows that Omega-3 acid is absorbed much better from food than from supplements. Norwegian researches did a study on 72 volunteers in four different groups of people. The first group were given Omega-3 in the form of supplements, the 2nd group ate salmon, the 3rd group cod liver oil and the 4th group just cod fish. The result was that the absorption of Omega-3 was the best in people who ate salmon and the worst in those who took regular supplements.

In my opinion, Omega-3 foods must be eaten by people who suffer from eating disorders if they want to get better.

2. Blueberries. You probably would be surprise how good for your brain they are. Researchers found that eating blueberries daily not only helps to improve your brain function but also helps to reverse the damage which has been done by diseases, age or trauma. What a great snack for eating disorders sufferers who want to be cured!!!
Blueberries are a major source of flavonoids, in particular anthocyanins and flavanols. Although the precise mechanisms by which these plant-derived molecules affect the brain are unknown, they have been shown to cross the blood brain barrier after dietary intake. It is believed that they exert their effects on learning and memory by enhancing existing neuronal connections, improving cellular communications and stimulating neuronal regeneration.

3. Vegetables. Cruciferous and green leafy vegetables including cauliflower, spinach, kale, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprout and collards appear to be the most beneficial. It could be because they contain a lot of Vitamin E, an antioxidant that helps to fight chemicals that damage the cells. Lots of other vitamins can be found in vegetables including B group of vitamins which are important for stress management and improving mental processes.

4. Wine consumption but you must be very careful. For people with anorexia careful drinking of good wine could be beneficial for three reasons: it provides calorie intake, relaxation and lots of antioxidants. Wine stimulates appetite directly through its physiological effect on the inner mouth lining. Laboratory studies have shown that wine contains special chemicals that have specific appetite-stimulating action. In general, small amounts of wine just before and during meal time stimulate the appetite by physiological and psychological means. However, consumption of large quantities of wine especially over prolonged periods before meals may depress the appetite and promote drinking rather than eating.

Appetite stimulation and relaxation can help some eating disorder sufferers to gain weight and improve their condition overall but you always have to watch not to drink too much and not to became an alcohol dependant. For the eating disorder sufferer it is easier to become alcohol dependent than for people who don't have eating disorders. The rule is: just one glass of wine with a dinner is GREAT and really beneficial to restore your weight - but more than that can be really problematic.

5. Eggs. Eggs are great source of proteins and vitamins which are lacking in other foods. Just the fact that one egg contains 6 grams of high-quality protein and all 9 essential amino acids speak for itself. Eggs are also one of the only foods that contain naturally occurring vitamin D.

Eggs are a good source of choline. One egg yolk has about 300 micrograms of choline. Choline is an important nutrient that helps regulate the brain, nervous system, and cardiovascular system.

Eggs also promote healthy hair and nails because of their high sulphur content and wide array of vitamins and minerals. Many people find their hair growing faster after adding eggs to their diet, especially if they were previously deficient in foods containing sulphur or B12. The study also showed that daily consumption of eggs reduces the risk of breast cancer by 44%.

6.Turkey. Turkey meat contains a lot of an amino acid called L-tryptophan. Amino acids are the "building blocks" for the proteins that make up our muscles and body organs including brain. (L-tryptophan is just one kind of amino acid - there are many different kinds of amino acids in the foods we eat.)
When we eat foods that contain L-tryptophan, this amino acid travels in the blood from the digestive system and later enters the brain. The brain then changes the L-tryptophan into another chemical called serotonin (remember the serotonin - neurotransmitter- that plays important role in eating disorders and your moods). Serotonin calms us down, helps us sleep, and makes us feel good and satisfied with ourselves.
But scientists now know that L-tryptophan can really only make a person tired right away if it is eaten or taken by itself without any amino acids. And the protein in turkey contains lots of other amino acids! So, eating turkey may help you to feel good and eventually stop your eating disorder.

7. Chocolate. A University of Nottingham expert has found that eating chocolate could help to sharpen up the mind and give a short-term boost to cognitive skills. It was found that cocoa (which chocolate made of) boosts blood flow to key areas of the brain for two to three hours. Increased blood flow to these areas of the brain may help to increase performance in specific tasks and boost general alertness over a short period. For eating disorder sufferers it is important to eat chocolate especially in the periods of studies, exams or acute stress.

8. Avocado - Its monounsaturated fat speeds up the basal metabolic rate, as compared with saturated fat. Its high fat content gives a quicker feeling of satiation ("fullness"), thus helping to reduce overeating. Its high fat content makes an overall sound diet more palatable, reducing the temptation to binge on foods high in sugars or saturated fats. Its rich supply of vitamins and minerals also makes the diet more wholesome and satisfying and thus more conducive to overall health and to moderation in consumption.

9. Tea - Drinking at least two daily cups of green tea was tied to the lowest risk of cognitive impairment. Cognitive function includes memory, attention, language, and visual ability. In this study, physical, social and productive activities of all participants were taken into account, as well as daily tea consumption. Higher tea consumption not only improved these functions and abilities but also resulted in a lower prevalence of depression. Further, it was found that those who drank more tea tended to enjoy higher levels of exercise and social relations.

These are the foods you should be eating if you are an eating disorder sufferer. But: let me make this very clear. It does not mean that the bulimic can binge out on these foods and then purge it all up. It does not mean the anorexic can have a tiny nibble of these foods and think they are doing well. What it means is a balanced meal of normal proportions, no bigger or smaller than a serving you would get at a good restaurant. All things in moderation are the key.

Autor: Irina Webster Irina Webster
Level: Platinum
Dr Irina Webster MD is the 39 years old Director of Women Health Issues one of the Australia leading suppliers of information on women health ... ...

Dr Irina Webster MD is the Director of Eating Disorder Institute. She is an author of many books and a public speaker. To learn more about eating disoders and its treatment go to http://www.eatingdisorder-institute.com

Added: July 1, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/