Your Daily Banana

As I mentioned before, February is National Eating Disorder Awareness Month.
I wanted to take a moment to sit down and write about a few things - especially after researching and finding that there isn’t very much in-depth educational information out there that comes from a medical/nutritional background.

Being someone who has had many friends/roommates and loved ones suffer with eating disorders, past and present - I know how serious it can be and how it can wreak havoc on a person’s life.

Many people with eating disorders, who have chosen to fight them, often time spend many years/decades trying to overcome the emotional/psychological damage and reverse the physical damage that was done to their bodies as a result of having an eating disorder.

Now, because this could easily end up being a 100 page paper for me, I am going to try to narrow my focus down to two things: 1. The Affects of Eating Disorders on the Body: Explaining things that you may currently be experiencing if you are currently suffering with an eating disorder. 2. The psychology that may sometimes lie behind an eating disorder. This will be done in two separate entries.

———————————————————

Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss. Symptoms include the following:

• Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal level for height, body type, age.
• Intense fear of weight gain or being “fat” Disturbance in the way one sees themselves (often times this includes a distorted perception of the body, despite ample weight loss, one may perceive themselves as a certain weight or body shape/size).
• Denial of serious weight loss
• Loss of menstrual periods (in females) - Which I will explain later

Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by episodes of binge eating (over eating) followed by purging. Purging may include:

• Self-Induced vomiting
• Fasting
• Excessive exercise
• The misuse of laxatives
• Diuretics (substances that encourage frequent urination)
• Enemas, etc.

Regardless of how these illnesses come about (usually it’s a combination of things), I feel it’s very important to dispel the myth that these illnesses are limited to certain people, be it race, age, status, sex… they truly do affect people of every kind. I also want to dispel the myth that people who suffer with these disorders are “choosing to be sick” or “just trying to get attention”. Regardless of what one may think, an eating disorder is a mental illness and it happens to have THE HIGHEST mortality rate of all mental illnesses (more people die a year as a result of eating disorder(ED) related complications than they do of any other commonly known mental disorder). With that being said, these things need to be treated immediately and intensively.

What happens to the body as a result of an eating disorder?
Electrolyte imbalance caused by dehydration as a result of purging or starvation, which results in irregular heartbeats, possible heart failure, and eventually death. The heart is a muscle and it relies heavily on electrolytes (potassium, sodium, chloride, etc.) in order to function properly. If a person is purging or starving themselves, these nutrients are being expelled from the body, or the body has no time to absorb them - or the body absorbs a quantity that is significantly inadequate to what the body needs in order to function.

Things that eating disorder patients may experience:

• Tooth and Bone Decay - This happens has a result of calcium deficiency. When a person is not taking calcium in through their diet, the body, as a compensating method, starts to leech these nutrients from the teeth and bones (where most of our calcium is stored). As a result of this, many eating disorder patients may experience easily broken bones.
• Very dry eyes, brittle hair and skin - may experience a lot of hair loss/breaking as a result of lack of vitamins A&E.
• Tooth staining (in bulimic patients) - This happens as a result of stomach acid released during frequent vomiting.
• Gastric rupture of the esophagus from frequent vomiting.
• Chronic/Irregular bowel movements as a result of laxative abuse.
• Ulcers as a result of increased stomach acid from vomiting/laxative use.
• Puffy face/Swollen face (this occurs even in very thin patients) as a result of frequent vomiting.
• Abnormally slow heart rate from changing that happens from malnourishment of the heart
• Downy Layer - A very thin layer of hair that grows all over the body (including the face), in effort to keep the body warm. This happens as a result of the body going into “protection mode” when under starvation.

Some ED sufferers believe that they can take a multivitamin in order to compensate for nutrients with their behavior. However, many vitamins are fat soluble (A,D,E,K), which means that they can only be absorbed in the body when accompanied by fat. If someone is not consuming fat, they are not getting the health benefits of these particular nutrients, because the nutrients are being restricted or expelled from the body before they are absorbed.

What are ADEK vitamins responsible for?

A: Beta-Carotine (protects the eyes against night blindness), conditions the eyes and skin, aids in infection protection and growth of teeth & bones.
D: Teeth & Bone health (helps to assist in the absorption of calcium), also synthesizes hormones (along with many of the other vitamins), which explains hormonal imbalances in those suffering with an eating disorder.
After many studies, Vitamin D deficiency is now directly connected to depression.
E: Antioxidant, helps protect against free-radicals (cancer causing/illness inducing cells), cognitive health (mental clarity). Skin health (protects and repairs).
K: Blood health, helps blood clot normally, help protect your bones from fracture, protection against liver and prostate cancer/blood related illnesses.

Lack of these vitamins and also water soluble vitamins (C and B) result in a lot of sickness and hormonal imbalance. Hormonal imbalances in turn, can result in depression, irregular/loss of menstrual cycle (in female patients) and sexual dysfunction in male patients.

Conclusion, blog number I.

Blog Number II. The Psychology Behind An Eating Disorder