Pro Ana websites are popular, enticing and potentially deadly to young women. They promote thinness at all costs and often disregard health, well being and common sense. The June 17th issue of American Journal of Public Health published a recent study of Pro Ana websites. This innovative study conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Stanford University School of Medicine, has raised questions about how we can meet the needs of these Pro Ana website visitors in healthier ways. It is important that Pro Recovery sites are supported and promoted by leaders and those influential to young woman. Professors, Teachers, Coaches, Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Parents and Therapists all can help offset the pro ana movement by supporting organizations that emphasize health and self esteem over thinness. It may save a life.
Fort Worth, TX (PRWEB) June 22, 2010 -- A recent study of Pro Ana websites, published in the June 17th issue of American Journal of Public Health, shed some light on why young women are drawn to these sites and what they find there. This illuminating study has created a flurry of discussion and concern in the public.
Pro Ana websites are prolific across the internet. These sites provide tips, advice and encouragement to women on how to become thinner, emaciated or practice anorexia nervosa. Dramatic calorie restriction, fasting, excessive exercise, purging, laxatives and other unhealthy behaviors are often glorified as a magic key to achieving the media glorified waif look that has so deeply influenced women today. Eating disorder treatment is not advised or suggested. Thus, in most cases, these Pro Anorexia websites are promoting a deadly lifestyle and self destruction.
"These Pro Ana sites provide a sense of camaraderie and collaboration among the website visitors. These sites also can create a sense of pursuing a more perfect version of the self, or at least the body" commented Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC, and Director of Eating Disorder Hope. Sadly, the Pro Ana sites are focused on thinness as a status symbol and promise increased confidence and power in the world if one can just become thin enough.
Fortunately, there are Pro Recovery sites that refute these claims and encourage visitors to find a sense of inner value, self esteem and worth in the content of the character - rather than the external image of the individual. Sites such as Eating Disorder Hope promote healthy self care, embracing life and pursuing recovery. This site's mission is to foster appreciation of one's uniqueness and value in the world, unrelated to appearance, achievement or applause.
Eating Disorder Hope and other recovery websites, provide treatment resources such as a Treatment Directory and a Specialist Library. These provide sufferers from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and compulsive overeating with contacts to professionals who can treat the destructive condition and the underlying issues that led to this maladaptive behavior.
Recovery Tools are provided and explained to offer practical suggestions for developing a healthier lifestyle and self esteem. Tools are given, such as nutrition tips, mindfulness skills, spirituality, improving rational thinking, body image improvement advice and relapse prevention techniques.
Resources are also provided that direct the individual to articles on recovery, inspirational real stories of recovered women, pro recovery newsletters and blogs, support groups, and excellent non profit organizations that support eating disorder awareness and prevention.
If you know of a woman suffering from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder or seemingly becoming far too preoccupied with weight, eating and diet - Please, seek help for them. A good starting point may be to refer them to a resource such as Eating Disorder Hope where they can find eating disorder treatment referrals, recovery tips and resources, and most of all, inspiration to choose a full and meaningful life over the empty existence of anorexia and other related conditions.
Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC is Director and Founder of Eating Disorder Hope. Eating Disorder Hope is the one stop eating disorder treatment, resource and information site. Eating Disorder Hope promotes ending eating disordered behavior, embracing life and pursuing recovery through implementing the best eating disorder treatment available for the individual with anorexia, bulimia or binge-eating disorder.
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Newsweek: Is That Fat Girl Me?
Read the full article here
Imagine you're a relatively thin young woman who thinks she has no issues with food or dieting—certainly no eating disorder. You see a picture of a swimsuit-clad woman with chunky thighs, a noticeable belly and arms that could benefit from a regular triceps routine. Suddenly your brain starts whirring anxiously and you wonder, do I look like that?
Now imagine you're a slim guy, also with no history of eating problems. You see a picture of a man in a swimsuit who looks like he's enjoyed more than his share of fries, beer, and double cheeseburgers. Your reaction is quite different from the woman's—at least according to researchers at Brigham Young University who conducted an experiment just like this.
Neuroscientist Mark Allen and his colleagues used imaging technology to watch brain activity in 19 men and women as they looked at computer-generated pictures of fat people in swimsuits. The nine male subjects in his study didn't appear to make any comparison between a picture of a fat guy and their own bodies. But the part of the brain involved in self-reflection (the medial prefrontal cortex) jumped into action when the 10 women looked at images of fat women, Allen says.
Imagine you're a relatively thin young woman who thinks she has no issues with food or dieting—certainly no eating disorder. You see a picture of a swimsuit-clad woman with chunky thighs, a noticeable belly and arms that could benefit from a regular triceps routine. Suddenly your brain starts whirring anxiously and you wonder, do I look like that?
Now imagine you're a slim guy, also with no history of eating problems. You see a picture of a man in a swimsuit who looks like he's enjoyed more than his share of fries, beer, and double cheeseburgers. Your reaction is quite different from the woman's—at least according to researchers at Brigham Young University who conducted an experiment just like this.
Neuroscientist Mark Allen and his colleagues used imaging technology to watch brain activity in 19 men and women as they looked at computer-generated pictures of fat people in swimsuits. The nine male subjects in his study didn't appear to make any comparison between a picture of a fat guy and their own bodies. But the part of the brain involved in self-reflection (the medial prefrontal cortex) jumped into action when the 10 women looked at images of fat women, Allen says.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Psychology Today: What we don't want to know about eating disorders
Five studies. That's the complete scientific literature about the effectiveness of different treatments for eating disorders. The largest of these studies had 165 participants. No wonder patients, parents and professionals flail around when presented with the options.
Dr. Jim Lock presented these and other findings at a Feb. 27 workshop for the public at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
The good news was that there were sixty people there - and they asked good questions. It's hard to get people to attend a discussion that includes the horrifying list of chronic and acute effects of eating disorders.
I learned a new one, parotid gland swelling, from Dr. Cynthia Kapphahn, who concluded her descriptions with this fact: "Parents and friends don't want to know this." Indeed, we would much rather have been home watching the Olympics.
We don't want to be blamed, a tradition that started with the first doctor to label a condition as anorexia nervosa.
Sir William Gull set the standard of blaming the parents, which just about always means the mother. Later researchers piled on "refrigerator mothers" and "double-binding mothers," Lock said. When Dr. Lock arrived at Stanford in 1993, parents were at best considering a nuisance in the treatment of eating disorders.
From the skimpy available evidence of five studies, Dr. Lock gleaned that family-based treatments are most effective and that cognitive behavioral therapy is "possibly useful." There was no evidence favoring antidepressants, save one small case series involving ten people that came out "possibly useful." Nutritional counseling was of limited usefulness. Psychiatric hospitalization showed "no specific benefit" in treating anorexia. There have been no studies about psychiatric hospitalization and bulimia, nor any documenting day programs and residential facilities.
In the question period, a man whose daughter has been hospitalized three times wondered how much he could push treatment on an unreceptive patient.
Parents must find the place between making threats and not doing anything at all - for fear of making things worse.
Dr. Kara Fitzpatrick attacked that dilemma. "If your child was drinking vodka before school to relieve anxiety, no question you'd intervene," she said. If your child is not eating, again, there should be no question.
Another question was about dual diagnoses, common with eating disorders. What do you treat first? A young adult has a psychotic break and is anorexic. Anorexia trumps even that, Dr. Lock said. It is life-threatening.
He concluded by quoting German philospher Arthur Schoepenhauer: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
As an aside, Sir Gull himself got a little confused.
On Friday, October 24, 1873, at a meeting of the Clinical Society of London, Sir William Gull achieved a coup de maitre by delivering two seminal reports. The first was called, "Anorexia Nervosa, (Apepsia Hysterica, Anorexia Hysterica)". The second was entitled, "On a Cretinoid State supervening in Adult Life in Women." The manuscript on anorexia was regarded by Gull's peers to be significant, but of lesser importance. The essay on hypothyroidism was generally regarded to be Gull's chef d'oeuvre. One hundred and twenty-four years later, the situation has reversed itself: the anorexia paper is heralded, while the other manuscript is all but forgotten.
Dr. Jim Lock presented these and other findings at a Feb. 27 workshop for the public at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
The good news was that there were sixty people there - and they asked good questions. It's hard to get people to attend a discussion that includes the horrifying list of chronic and acute effects of eating disorders.
I learned a new one, parotid gland swelling, from Dr. Cynthia Kapphahn, who concluded her descriptions with this fact: "Parents and friends don't want to know this." Indeed, we would much rather have been home watching the Olympics.
We don't want to be blamed, a tradition that started with the first doctor to label a condition as anorexia nervosa.
Sir William Gull set the standard of blaming the parents, which just about always means the mother. Later researchers piled on "refrigerator mothers" and "double-binding mothers," Lock said. When Dr. Lock arrived at Stanford in 1993, parents were at best considering a nuisance in the treatment of eating disorders.
From the skimpy available evidence of five studies, Dr. Lock gleaned that family-based treatments are most effective and that cognitive behavioral therapy is "possibly useful." There was no evidence favoring antidepressants, save one small case series involving ten people that came out "possibly useful." Nutritional counseling was of limited usefulness. Psychiatric hospitalization showed "no specific benefit" in treating anorexia. There have been no studies about psychiatric hospitalization and bulimia, nor any documenting day programs and residential facilities.
In the question period, a man whose daughter has been hospitalized three times wondered how much he could push treatment on an unreceptive patient.
Parents must find the place between making threats and not doing anything at all - for fear of making things worse.
Dr. Kara Fitzpatrick attacked that dilemma. "If your child was drinking vodka before school to relieve anxiety, no question you'd intervene," she said. If your child is not eating, again, there should be no question.
Another question was about dual diagnoses, common with eating disorders. What do you treat first? A young adult has a psychotic break and is anorexic. Anorexia trumps even that, Dr. Lock said. It is life-threatening.
He concluded by quoting German philospher Arthur Schoepenhauer: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
As an aside, Sir Gull himself got a little confused.
On Friday, October 24, 1873, at a meeting of the Clinical Society of London, Sir William Gull achieved a coup de maitre by delivering two seminal reports. The first was called, "Anorexia Nervosa, (Apepsia Hysterica, Anorexia Hysterica)". The second was entitled, "On a Cretinoid State supervening in Adult Life in Women." The manuscript on anorexia was regarded by Gull's peers to be significant, but of lesser importance. The essay on hypothyroidism was generally regarded to be Gull's chef d'oeuvre. One hundred and twenty-four years later, the situation has reversed itself: the anorexia paper is heralded, while the other manuscript is all but forgotten.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Anorexics Found to Have Excess Fat -- In Their Bone Marrow
BOSTON, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- People with anorexia nervosa, paradoxically, have strikingly high levels of fat within their bone marrow, report researchers at Children's Hospital Boston. Their findings, based on MRI imaging of the knees of 20 girls with anorexia and 20 healthy girls of the same age, appear in the February issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.
"It's counter-intuitive that an emaciated young woman with almost no subcutaneous fat would be storing fat in her marrow," says endocrinologist Catherine Gordon, MD, MSc, director of the Bone Health Program at Children's and the study's senior investigator.
In the study, the knee MRI images were read by radiologists who were unaware of the patient's clinical status. Compared with controls, the patients with anorexia had markedly increased fat content -- visualized as "yellow marrow" -- and less than half as much healthy red marrow in their knees; this was seen both in the lower thigh bone (femur) and upper shinbone (tibia). The findings in these girls and young women, averaging 16 years of age, confirm previous observations in mice with clinical signs similar to anorexia nervosa, reported by study co-author Clifford Rosen, MD, of the Maine Medical Center.
Previous work has shown that hormonal alterations, which are common in states of malnutrition, trigger the bone marrow's mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into fat cells (adipocytes) rather than bone-forming cells (osteoblasts). Together, the mouse and human studies may explain why people with anorexia nervosa lose bone mass, sometimes to the point of developing osteoporosis and fractures.
"Bone formation is very low in girls with anorexia, and that's a particular problem because they are growing adolescents who should be maximally forming bones," says Gordon. "But because of the hormonal alterations induced by malnutrition, the bone marrow stops yielding the needed cells to form bone. Instead the stem cells are pushed toward fat formation."
Gordon is planning follow-up studies to find out why this happens. One speculation is that it's the body's attempt to store energy and preserve warmth. Anorexics often develop hypothermia because of a lack of insulating fat, and are often hospitalized with extremely low body temperatures.
Gordon also wants to see how closely fat in the bone marrow correlates with bone density, and whether measuring fat with noninvasive MRI scans might serve as one way of testing the efficacy of hormonal therapies aimed at improving bone mass. Gordon has several studies testing such therapies in anorexia and other conditions that lead to bone loss, such as inflammatory bowel disease.
Kirsten Ecklund, MD, of Children's Department of Radiology, was the study's first author. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Children's Hospital Radiology Foundation, Inc.
Citation:
Ecklund K et al. Bone marrow changes in adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa. J Bone Min Res Feb 2010.
Children's Hospital Boston is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. More than 500 scientists, including eight members of the National Academy of Sciences, 13 members of the Institute of Medicine and 12 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children's Hospital Boston today is a 396-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Children's also is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about the hospital and its research visit:
"It's counter-intuitive that an emaciated young woman with almost no subcutaneous fat would be storing fat in her marrow," says endocrinologist Catherine Gordon, MD, MSc, director of the Bone Health Program at Children's and the study's senior investigator.
In the study, the knee MRI images were read by radiologists who were unaware of the patient's clinical status. Compared with controls, the patients with anorexia had markedly increased fat content -- visualized as "yellow marrow" -- and less than half as much healthy red marrow in their knees; this was seen both in the lower thigh bone (femur) and upper shinbone (tibia). The findings in these girls and young women, averaging 16 years of age, confirm previous observations in mice with clinical signs similar to anorexia nervosa, reported by study co-author Clifford Rosen, MD, of the Maine Medical Center.
Previous work has shown that hormonal alterations, which are common in states of malnutrition, trigger the bone marrow's mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into fat cells (adipocytes) rather than bone-forming cells (osteoblasts). Together, the mouse and human studies may explain why people with anorexia nervosa lose bone mass, sometimes to the point of developing osteoporosis and fractures.
"Bone formation is very low in girls with anorexia, and that's a particular problem because they are growing adolescents who should be maximally forming bones," says Gordon. "But because of the hormonal alterations induced by malnutrition, the bone marrow stops yielding the needed cells to form bone. Instead the stem cells are pushed toward fat formation."
Gordon is planning follow-up studies to find out why this happens. One speculation is that it's the body's attempt to store energy and preserve warmth. Anorexics often develop hypothermia because of a lack of insulating fat, and are often hospitalized with extremely low body temperatures.
Gordon also wants to see how closely fat in the bone marrow correlates with bone density, and whether measuring fat with noninvasive MRI scans might serve as one way of testing the efficacy of hormonal therapies aimed at improving bone mass. Gordon has several studies testing such therapies in anorexia and other conditions that lead to bone loss, such as inflammatory bowel disease.
Kirsten Ecklund, MD, of Children's Department of Radiology, was the study's first author. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Children's Hospital Radiology Foundation, Inc.
Citation:
Ecklund K et al. Bone marrow changes in adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa. J Bone Min Res Feb 2010.
Children's Hospital Boston is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. More than 500 scientists, including eight members of the National Academy of Sciences, 13 members of the Institute of Medicine and 12 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children's Hospital Boston today is a 396-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Children's also is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about the hospital and its research visit:
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Disordered Eating May Affect 10 to 15 Percent of Women
ScienceDaily (Dec. 20, 2009) — Several maladaptive eating behaviors, beyond anorexia, can affect women. Indeed, some 10 to 15 percent of women have maladaptive eating behaviours and attitudes according to new study from the Université de Montréal and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
"Our results are disquieting," says Lise Gauvin, a professor at the Université de Montréal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine. "Women are exposed to many contradictory messages. They are encouraged to lose weight yet also encouraged to eat for the simple pleasure of it."
Some 1,501 women took part in the phone survey on eating disorders and disordered eating. Not one participant was classified as anorexic. The average age of these urban-dwelling participants was 31, the majority of respondents were non-smokers and university graduates.
Dr. Gauvin says the study sheds new light on binge eating and bulimia, which are characterized in part by excessive eating accompanied by feelings of having lost control. "About 13.7 percent of women interviewed for this study reported binge eating one to five days or one to seven times per month," she says, noting 2.5 percent of women reported forcing themselves to vomit, use laxatives, or use diuretics to maintain their weight or shape.
The investigation also established a link between problematic eating behaviours and self-rated health. In other words, deviant eating behaviours are more likely to occur in women who perceived themselves to be in poor health.
Another finding of the study was that 28 percent of women complete intense exercise twice a month with the sole objective of losing weight or influencing. "We practice a sport for the pleasure it provides, to feel good, but when the activity is done to gain control over one's weight and figure, it is indicative of someone who could be excessively concerned about their weight," says Dr. Gauvin. "Our data suggests that a proportion of the female population displays maladaptive eating patterns."
This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Downward Dog Fights Eating Disorders
Yoga for teens could be more than a spiritual and physical boost—a new randomized controlled trial suggests that it may help those with anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders.
The study included 50 adolescents aged 11-16, the vast majority of whom were girls. They were seriously ill. Nearly half had previously been hospitalized because of their eating disorder—at the time of the study, they were being treated at an outpatient clinic at Seattle Children's hospital.
55% were suffering from anorexia, 17% had bulimia and the rest had been diagnosed with “eating disorder-not otherwise specified,” a condition in which people have some, but not all of the symptoms of anorexia or bulimia or both.
The study was led by T. Rain Carei Ph.D. of Seattle Children's Hospital and published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Teens were randomized to receive either usual treatment at the clinic—or that treatment plus two hours a week of yoga classes, conducted by an instructor certified in Viniyoga by the Yoga Alliance. The study period lasted eight weeks.
While controls showed improvement on tests of eating disordered behaviors and thinking during treatment, these had fallen back to their previous levels when they were followed up a month afterwards.
But in the yoga, while improvement started slowly, a month later, these teens were doing much better than they had been at the start of treatment and had lower scores on these measures as a result. Yoga had no effect on weight, which was reassuring because underweight subjects needed to gain to recover and weight loss could cause more harm.
The researchers suspect that yoga may help by reducing the obsessive concern about weight associated with eating disorders. They write, “Food preoccupation may be reduced by focusing attention on yoga poses.” Some subjects even expressed this idea directly to the researchers, saying “This is the only hour in my week when I don't think about my weight."
If a larger study confirms these findings, a prescription for the child's pose and others could be in the future for teens with eating disorders.
The study included 50 adolescents aged 11-16, the vast majority of whom were girls. They were seriously ill. Nearly half had previously been hospitalized because of their eating disorder—at the time of the study, they were being treated at an outpatient clinic at Seattle Children's hospital.
55% were suffering from anorexia, 17% had bulimia and the rest had been diagnosed with “eating disorder-not otherwise specified,” a condition in which people have some, but not all of the symptoms of anorexia or bulimia or both.
The study was led by T. Rain Carei Ph.D. of Seattle Children's Hospital and published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Teens were randomized to receive either usual treatment at the clinic—or that treatment plus two hours a week of yoga classes, conducted by an instructor certified in Viniyoga by the Yoga Alliance. The study period lasted eight weeks.
While controls showed improvement on tests of eating disordered behaviors and thinking during treatment, these had fallen back to their previous levels when they were followed up a month afterwards.
But in the yoga, while improvement started slowly, a month later, these teens were doing much better than they had been at the start of treatment and had lower scores on these measures as a result. Yoga had no effect on weight, which was reassuring because underweight subjects needed to gain to recover and weight loss could cause more harm.
The researchers suspect that yoga may help by reducing the obsessive concern about weight associated with eating disorders. They write, “Food preoccupation may be reduced by focusing attention on yoga poses.” Some subjects even expressed this idea directly to the researchers, saying “This is the only hour in my week when I don't think about my weight."
If a larger study confirms these findings, a prescription for the child's pose and others could be in the future for teens with eating disorders.
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