Anorexia Nervosa

This article is about anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder. Characterized by excessive food restriction and fear, irrational fear of gaining weight, and a distorted body self-perception. It typically involves excessive weight loss. Anorexia nervosa usually develops during adolescence and early adulthood. This restriction offood intake causes metabolic and hormonal disorders.  Outside of medical literature, the terms anorexia nervosa and anorexia are often used interchangeably; however, anorexia is simply a medical term for lack of appetite. However, people with anorexia nervosa do not lose their appetites. People suffering from anorexia have extremely high levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone that tells the brain when it is time to eat, in their blood.  The high levels of ghrelin suggests that their bodies are trying desperately to switch hunger on but that hunger’s call is being ignored. one small single-blind study found that intravenous administration of ghrelin to anorexia nervosa patients increased food intake by 12-36% over the trial period. Anorexia nervosa has many complicated implications and may be thought of as a lifelong illness that may never be truly cured, but only managed over time. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by low body weight, inappropriate eating habits and obsession with having a thin figure. Individuals suffering from it may also practice repeated weighing, measuring, and mirror gazing, alongside other obsessive actions, to make sure they are still thin, a common practice known as "body checking". Anorexia nervosa is often coupled with a distorted self-image which may be maintained by various cognitive biases that alter how the affected individual evaluates and thinks about her or his body, food and eating. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by the fear of gaining weight. Those suffering from this disorder often view themselves as "too fat" even if they are already underweight.  People with anorexia nervosa continue to feel hunger, but deny themselves all very small quantities of food. The average caloric intake of a person with anorexia nervosa is 600"800 calories per day, but extreme cases of complete self-starvation are known. It is a serious mental illness with a high incidence of comorbidity and similarly high mortality rates to serious psychiatric disorders. Anorexia nervosa most often has its onset in adolescence and is more prevalent among adolescent girls than adolescent males. However, more recent studies show the onset age has decreased from an average of 13 to 17 years of age to 9 to 12. While it can affect men and women of any age, race, and socioeconomic and cultural background, anorexia nervosa occurs in 10 times more females than males.  The term anorexia nervosa was established in 1873 by Sir William Gull one of Queen Victoria's personal physicians. Many anorexics do enjoy eating and have certainly not lost their appetites as the term "loss of appetite" is normally understood; it is better to regard anorexia nervosa as a self-punitive addiction to fasting, rather than a literal loss of appetite. Schneer suggested anorexia nervosa patients who have "difficulties in identifying, containing and articulating emotions resort to food as a symbolic expression of the inability to establish subjective limits in their relationships with others". The signs of a person with anorexia nervosa may exhibit a number of signs and symptoms, the type and severity of which may vary in each case and may be present but not readily apparent. Anorexia nervosa, and the associated malnutrition that results from self-imposed starvation, can cause severe complications in every major organ system in the body. Hypokalemia, a drop in the level of potassium in the blood, is a symptom of Anorexia nervosa. A significant drop in potassium can cause abnormal heart rhythms, constipation, fatigue, muscle damage and paralysis. 50-75% of individuals with an eating disorder experience depression.

Symptoms for a typical patient include:

1. Refusal to maintain a normal body mass index for their age
2. Fearful of even the slightest weight gain and takes all precautionary measures to avoid weight gain and becoming overweight
3. Obvious, rapid, dramatic weight loss
4. Lanugo: soft, fine hair growing on the face and body
5. Obsession with calories and fat content of food
6. Preoccupation with food, recipes, or cooking; may cook elaborate dinners for others, but not eat the food themselves
7. Dieting despite being thin or dangerously underweight
8. Rituals: cuts food into tiny pieces; refuses to eat around others; hides or discards food
9. Purging: uses laxatives, diet pills, ipecac syrup, or water pills; may engage in self-induced vomiting; may run to the bathroom after eating in order to vomit and quickly get rid of the calories
10. May engage in frequent, strenuous exercise
11. Perception of self to be overweight despite being told by others they are too thin and, in most cases, underweight
12. Becomes intolerant to cold and frequently complains of being cold from loss of insulating body fat or poor circulation resulting from extremely low blood pressure; body temperature lowers (hypothermia) in effort to conserve energy
13. Depression
14. Solitude
15. Cheeks may become swollen because of enlargement of the salivary glands caused by excessive vomiting
16. Swollen joints
17. Abdominal distension
18. Bad breathe from vomiting
19. Hair loss or thinning
20. Fatigue

Author's Note

I thought this article is important because a lot of girls suffer from eating disorder. Also, please tell me your thoughts about this article. I would really appreciate it.