A Look Into the World of Anorexia Essay

He points out that the behaviour of restricting anorexics cannot be explained by this theory. If restricting food intake leads to over eating, how do they manage to starve themselves? However, it can be argued that as anorexia is a mental disorder, its behaviour cannot be generalised with dieters, to whom this theory is relevant.

Incidences of Anorexia Nervosa have appeared to increase sharply in the USA, UK and western European countries since the beginning of the 60s (Gordon, 2001). The increasing prevalence of the disease has led the World Health Organisation to declare eating disorders a global priority area within adolescent mental health (Becker et al. 2011). Anorexia has in many ways become a modern epidemic (Gordon, 2000) and with a mortality rate of 10% per decade (Gorwood et al. 2003), the highest of any mental disorder (Bulik et al. 2006), it is an epidemic that social and biological scientists have been working tirelessly to understand.

Nowadays, when people emphasis more and more on healthy lifestyles, both exercise and food intake have become a big part of the consideration. With the goals of being fit and losing weight, some people eat irregularly or do not eat at all. As a result, eating disorders seem more often on news and reports. However, some people still view it as a joke. With the increasing number of people diagnosed with eating disorders, people should raise awareness on the effects of eating disorders and treat them seriously.

Anorexia Nervosa is the condition when an individual abstains from food in order to lose weight or prevent more weight gain. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV(DSM-IV) there are four aspects of criteria to be diagnosed with anorexia: a refusal to maintain weight above what is minimally normal for one’s age and height, and extreme fear of weight gain, distorted body image, and (in females) having amenorrhea(missing three or more consecutive menstrual cycles.)(DSM-IV, 2000:589) Anorexia not only affects weight, but also alters bone growth, neurotransmitters and hormones in the brain, and electrolytes.

There was a study conducted in 2005 that used rats and PET scans in order to better understand the neurological aspects of anorexia. (Barbarich-Marsteller, Marsteller, Alexoff, Fowler, & Dewey, 2005) They wanted to see if chronic food restriction would decrease 2-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) they were comparing this to the cerebral glucose hypometabolism in people who had anorexia nervosa. (Barbarich-Marsteller et al., 2005) For this study, the researchers used nine female rats that were six to seven weeks old. They allowed the rats one week to get accustomed to their new home and then during the second week the rats were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The control group had as much food as they wanted for twenty-five days, but the group that was having their food restricted received forty percent of the food they had eaten during the first week until they had lost thirty percent of their body weight. . (Barbarich-Marsteller et al., 2005) The researchers then tried to get the rats to maintain this weight. As another factor of this study, only the food restricted group had free range to a running wheel. . (Barbarich-Marsteller et al.,

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that consists of self-regulated food restriction in which the person strives for thinness and also involves distortion of the way the person sees his or her own body. An anorexic person weighs less than 85% of their ideal body weight. The prevalence of eating disorders is between .5-1% of women aged 15-40 and about 1/20 of this number occurs in men. Anorexia affects all aspects of an affected person's life including emotional health, physical health, and relationships with others (Shekter-Wolfson et al 5-6). A study completed in 1996 showed that anorexics also tend to possess traits that are obsessive in nature and carry heavy emotional

Park et al (1995) were important in discovering a biological link with anorexia. Park et

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are eating disorders that severely affect both men and women around the world. The cause of the eating disorder usually derives from psychological, biological and social forces. Eating disorders have become an epidemic in American society, twenty-four million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder in the U.S. (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.\, 2011). There are many ways to address and treat an eating disorder. There have been multiple studies conducted to test the effectiveness of different types of treatment. My central research question analyzes the relationship between the continuation of the eating disorder with the presence of intervention or some

Whether it is the study of biopsychology and other fields of psychology or neuroscience, all psychologists and scientists are trying to understand the functions of the brain. The body and mind connection and how it reacts to certain behaviors or illnesses. Most all psychological functioning can be reduced to underlying brain processes. This should serve as reason alone as to why biology plays an important part in the study of psychology. Psychological factors play a role in whether a person develops a mental illness and in how well they recover from a mental illness, yet biological and genetic risk factors, or predispositions, are

At present, these eating disorders have an effect on roughly 25 million Americans, of which almost 25% are of the male gender. Out of all the psychological disorders, anorexia has the highest mortality rate. The whys and wherefores include malnourishment, substance abuse and reckless suicides. Eating disorders can happen to anyone; no matter whether they’re male or female, rich or poor, old or young. According to many researchers, eating disorders are caused by more than just food. There are numerous

This research study had many different strengths.  One of the strengths is that the study encompassed all patients that fit the definition of anorexia instead of focusing on patients in a certain age range or of a certain gender or race.  Another strength is that the multimodal program included

Each year millions of people in the United States are affected by serious and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders. The vast majorities are adolescents and young adult women. Approximately one percent of adolescent girls develops anorexia nervosa, a dangerous condition in which they can literally starve themselves to death. Another two to three percent develop bulimia nervosa, a destructive pattern of excessive overeating followed by vomiting or other " purging " behaviors to control their weight. These eating disorders also occur in men and older women, but much less frequently. The consequences of eating disorders can be severe. For example, one in ten anorexia nervosa leads to death from starvation, cardiac arrest, or

Anorexia is defined as a eating disorder, or loss of appetite to maintain a ideal weight. (Ref). While anorexia is more common in females with reporting that more than 6 million women yearly suffer from anorexia nervosa, and bulimia. (National Association of Anorexia and Associated Disorders, 2000). However, even though anorexia is more common in females, than males it has been reported that more than one million men suffer from this disease as well. (National Association of Anorexia and Associated Disorders, 2000).In my paper we learn about the difference and similarities between male and female anorexia, the rise of male anoxria, and treatment.

Topic: Eating Disorder I. Introduction Paragraph 1 Thesis statement: Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that can be caused by biological and environmental factors, which is detected through several symptoms and can be treated with medication and therapy. II. Body Paragraph 2 Topic sentence: A particular eating disorder disease, anorexia nervosa, can arise from several factors, such as biological and environmental factors. Supporting ideas: 1. Biological factors that would contribute to the occurrence of anorexia nervosa include irregular hormone functions and genetics.

How many of you have ever battled an eating disorder or known someone with an eating disorder? One or two of every 100 students will struggle or have struggled with an eating disorder. An anonymous quote from someone who struggled an eating disorder once said “Nothing matters when I’m thin”. Anyone of us in this room is at risk of an eating disorder. Females have to maintain that ‘normal’ look to fit in with society. More guys are seeking help for eating disorders as well. Guys with eating disorders tend to focus more on athletic appearance or success than just on looking thin. I’m going to inform you today about anorexia; what it is, signs, causes, effects, and possible treatments to help it.