Thursday, December 12, 2019

Choice of Diet

Image result for anorexia


Anorexia nervosa, commonly known as anorexia, is an eating disorder that is associated with food litigation, fear of gaining weight, underweight, and a strong urge to continuously lose weight. On July 15th, 2019, The largest study for Anorexia Nervosa has taken place, examining around 17,000 patients that have been diagnosed with this disorder.  Findings suggest that chemical signals involving both the mentally and physically have confused the mind to behave in this manner, causing the individual to not choose a healthy diet.  Getting these results from one of the largest studies of anorexia yet, the disorder affects up to 2% of women and 0.3% of men. It has been a struggle trying to figure out how to dissect the disorder and treat it all in the same process.  Anorexia shares some of the same character traits as ODC, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia.
Anorexia, like any other mental disorder, should be as big of a priority as our physical and emotional health. That fact that this disorder shares "characteristic single-nucleotide polymorphisms" with other disorders that are affecting a huge percentage of mental health should be highlighted and brought to the attention of our children. Although psychiatrists have struggled to find solutions to 100% treat the people who have been diagnosed, I feel as though sharing what the issue is and helping others gain knowledge of how to treat the Patient in the real world should bring light to the fact that we want to help. I think by acknowledging people with this disorder as if they are the same as anybody else will help a little at least with the mental state.

Original Article: Roots of Anorexia

1 comment:

  1. This article was a really good read, but actually left me with a lot of questions! While anorexia nervosa is one of the most notorious eating disorders, I feel as though limiting this sample size to strictly AN patients was an interesting choice. Would atypical cases of anorexia (those who don't meet the BMI requirement) or EDNOS cases (those who don't fit into one category) show the same results? With considerations of the fact thought processes are often very similar throughout all eating disorders, I wonder if they would. Especially being that they found close ties to other disorders such as OCD and schizophrenia.

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