People who suffer from anorexia, will ultimately damage necessary organs such as the heart and brain due to starvation. To guard itself, the body changes into "slow gear", thereby experiencing long-term irregular or absent menstrual periods, declining pulse, respiration and blood pressure rates and minimal thyroid function. A person's nails and hair become brittle and their skin dries and turns yellow with a soft hair called lanugo. Extreme thirst and continual urination may occur. Yet, dehydration due to the lack of nutrition leads to constipation. Furthermore, less body fat

Initial treatment would be to help the patient gain weight. "Weight restorations is usually successful in at least 85% of patients" (Hsu, pg. 136). The weight goal is strictly set by the doctor, and if the patient is really malnourished then they should begin with a calorie count as low as 1,500 calories a day so that it reduces the chances of bloating and stomach problems. Intravenous or tube feeding is rarely used unless the patient's condition is life threatening. For long term recovery however, a patient must undergo consistent support and counseling from dietitians, behavioral-cognitive therapists, and psychotherapists. Dietitians should provide a system for planning meals and educated the patients and parents on the specific weight goals and the serious damage that the binge-purge cycle and dieting can have. Cognitive-behavioral therapy teaches the patients techniques to monitor and change their eating habits as well as to change the way they respond to difficult situations. Interpersonal psychotherapy helps people examine their relationships with friends and family and to make changes in problem areas. The same treatments would be applied to binge eating with the exception of dieting unless the patient is extremely overweight. Because patients with either bulimia nervosa or binge eating have high levels of depression, both can be treated with medications such as antidepressants.

Both anorexia and bulimia can lead to an early case of osteoporosis, which is identified by the loss of bone tissue. This happens because the body looses the calcium it needs to build the correct bone mass, so the bones become brittle and break easily. A woman's menstrual cycle also plays a large role in premature osteoporosis because of estrogen. Estrogen, which is produced by the ovaries during menstruation, protects the bone tissue. If a woman's period begins to decline, then so does the estrogen production, therefore increasing the chances of osteoporosis. "Out of a population of young patients with the severe eating disorder Anorexia Nervosa, 50% were diagnosed with premature osteoporosis" (www.kidsource.com).

These three eating disorders can cause severe damage to one's body, some of which may irreversible. Specific symptoms and physical examination signs that characterize a certain eating disorder should be evaluated carefully since many medical conditions can complicate eating disorders. Thus, diagnosing the disease early on can provide the patients with the required treatment to optimize the prognosis in these really dev

Some common words found in the essay are:
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