Anorexia is characterized by extremely low body weight and a distorted self body image accompanied with an intense fear of gaining weight. Extreme exercising is also commonly associated with anorexia. An anorexic may allow themselves any where from 100 to 1,000 calories a day. It is not food that turns them off however, it's the preoccupation with gaining weight. Food my in fact may be on their mind constantly. Some develop such obsessions with food that they will develop obsessions with cooking and preparing the foods... probably never even tasting them. An anorexic can lose at least 15% to as much as 60% of their normal body weight. Bulimia occurs with or without

Both men and women are at higher risk for eating disorders if they suffer from depression, personality disorder, or substance abuse. Anorexia and Bulimia have typically occurred in teenagers, however, over the past forty years, while they have increased among teenagers, rates have tripled among adult women.

Complications brought on by Anorexia are dangerous. Although many women with anorexia recover after treatment, many remain thin and display traits including perfectionism and a drive for thinness that could keep them at risk for recurrence of the disorder. Recovery usually takes between four and seven years. Many studies of anorexic patients have reported death rates ranging from 4% to 20%. Patients who are at the lowest weights when they are first treated are in the greatest danger. Heart disease is the most common medical cause of death in people with severe anorexia. The heart can develop dangerous rhythms, blood flow is reduced and blood pressure may drop. In addition, the heart muscles starve, losing size. Cholesterol levels tend to rise. An anorexics body does not receive many valuable nutrients it needs to function. Minerals such as potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphate are normally dissolved in the body's fluid. They are particularly important because they affect electric currents that cause the heart to beat regularly. Anorexia causes low levels of reproductive hormones, changes in thyroid hormones, and increased levels of the stress hormones. Long term irregular or absent menstruation is common, which eventually may cause sterility and bone loss. Even after treatment, normal menstruation never returns in 25% of such patients.

The primary symptom of anorexia is major weight loss from excessive and continuous dieting. In women, menstruation would

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