Anorexia is an eating disorder where people starve themselves. Anorexia usually begins in young people around the onset of puberty. Anorexia is a condition that goes beyond out-of-control dieting. A person with anorexia initially begins dieting to lose weight. The drive to become thinner is actually secondary to concerns about control and/or fears relating to one’s body.

Approximately 95% of those affected by anorexia are female, but males can develop the disorder as well. While anorexia typically begins to manifest itself during early adolescence, it is also seen in young children and adults. In the U.S. and other countries with high economic status, it is estimated that about one out of every 100 adolescent girls has the disorder.

Some other symptoms of anorexia are:

• Loss of at least 3 consecutive menstrual periods (in women).
• Not wanting or refusing to eat in public
• Anxiety
• Weakness
• Brittle skin
• Shortness of breath
• Obsessiveness about calorie intake

With anorexia, the body goes into starvation mode, and the lack of nutrition can affect the body in many ways:

• a drop in blood pressure, pulse, and breathing rate
• hair loss and fingernail breakage
• loss of periods
• lanugo hair — a soft hair that can grow all over the skin
• lightheadedness and inability to concentrate
• anemia
• swollen joints
• brittle bones

Therapy or counseling is a critical part of treating anorexia in many cases, family therapy is one of the keys to eating healthily again. Parents and other family members are important in helping a person see that his or her normal body shape is perfectly fine and that being excessively thin can be dangerous.

Source by : mamashealth.com, medicinenet.com,

Tags: anorexia, eating disorder

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 12:52 am and is filed under Body, Hair, Info, Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.