Learn The Unveiled Health causes and solutions to eating disorders
Causes and solutions to eating disorders affect millions of people in the Western world and usually take at least five or six years to cure. Its been founded that eating disorders and university students are the ones affected in a big way, because of the pressures around them and the need to look and be like celebrities.
Anorexia nervosa and Bulimia nervosa are the best-known food disorders. Anorexia brings about extreme weight loss from a virtual starvation diet, while bulimia consists of spells of binge eating followed by purging in an attempt to control weight. There is also an unspecified causes and solutions to eating disorders, where one has the symptoms of anorexia or bulimia but not severely enough or not of a long enough duration to be classified as anorexia or bulimia. Many people with eating disorders fall into this last category.
Anorexia nervosa is the psychiatric condition with the highest death rate either by starvation or by suicide. Bulimia nervosa is probably the most common eating disorder. It is easier to hide than anorexia, as the bulimic is often not noticeably emaciated by the condition.
People with eating disorders either eat junk food, skip meals or eat erratically, leading to biochemical and physiological imbalances in the body. Skipping meals and binge eating on foods high in sugar and carbohydrates can lead to low blood sugar levels, cravings and desensitization of the body cells to insulin. Chromium, an important mineral for the control of blood sugar levels, is excreted when the diet has a high sugar content. An excess of caffeine blocks the production of serotonin and melatonin. This results in tiredness, irritability, anxiety and depression. Obviously, this is very bad for optimal and sustained health and longevity.
Dieting lowers the levels of tryptophan in the system, thus depleting serotonin levels. When bulimics are deprived of tryptophan they binge, which leads to a sudden increase in serotonin levels, giving them a temporary fix to reduce their depression. But when the effects of the fix begin to wane they feel ashamed and worthless because of the excess they have eaten, causing them to purge themselves. By vomiting, the body loses essential nutrients, and serotonin levels are lowered once again. Obviously, this pattern of binge and purge causes excessive mood swings in the bulimic and causes severe eating disorders .
Eating disorders place stress on the adrenal glands, responsible for producing most of the stress hormones. In turn other hormone glands, such as the thyroid and the ovaries, can be disrupted.
The sex hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone interact with neurotransmitters to stimulate mood. Low estrogen is linked to low serotonin levels, bringing about cravings; low progesterone is linked to infertility, anxiety and PMS; high progesterone is linked to lethargy, an increase in appetite and depression.
In recent years there has been a realization that a combination of nutritional, psychological and medical approaches is necessary in the treatment of ‘thin’ eating disorders. If the patient is unresponsive to these approaches and has a very low weight, outpatient treatment might no longer be an option. Hospital treatment might be the only answer and recovery centers for eating disorders . Whatever approach is taken, it is essential to address the problem for long-term health and even survival.
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