WEIGHT CONTROL IN CASE OF OSTEOPOROSIS: ANOREXIA NERVOSA.
This disorder (after the Greek ‘anorexis’, without longing, without appetite) is dieting to the point of self-starvation, with an obsessive desire to be ultra thin, because of peer pressure among young women or the power of advertising. A girl with this condition can literally waste away to death. It is not well known in countries where there are real shortages of food, but it seems to be on the increase in the Western world where it mainly affects young girls. Recent conservative estimates indicate that 1 in 100 schoolgirls in Britain have anorexia to some degree. Although most anorexics are female, about 6 per cent are adolescent boys; occasionally the disorder is found in older women.
An anorexic may begin to diet to lose a few pounds, but become so intent on losing weight, with a revulsion towards food, she starves herself until weighing perhaps only 60 or 70 pounds -while still falsely believing herself to be fat.
Hormonal changes occur to make her reproductive system unbalanced, she will become infertile and cease to menstruate because of oestrogen deficiency, she will risk heart failure, kidney failure and liver damage. Nutrition has no chance to build up her bone structure, and with frequent induced vomiting, her teeth decay rapidly with the bile acids that rot the enamel.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital report that although most of the damaging consequences of anorexia nervosa are reversible with therapy and weight gain, the reduction in bone density might not be. Bone building may resume with a return to normal eating habits, but it may be impossible to compensate for the time when bone growth was impaired.
Reduced bone mass may continue throughout the lives of formerly anorexic girls, making them even more vulnerable to postmenopausal fracturing.
To effect a cure, counselling and individual therapy is vital, if you have a daughter with this disorder, or know a young person on a deliberate starvation diet.
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