If being excessively fat is a serious health problem, then excess thinness has its own disadvantage as well. While some people battle with the problem of overweight, others are fighting? anorexia – a potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterised by self-starvation and excessive weight loss. RALIAT YUSUF-AHMED writes.
Too fat is bad, too thin is disgusting, but when can a balance be struck? The word obesity is known to be a condition that is associated with having excess body fat, usually defined by genetic and environmental factors that are difficult to control when dieting. This condition has been identified as a disease. However, everything in life has a flipside, and that of obesity is being grossly underweight, a condition identified as “anorexia nervosa” or the “slimmers’ disease”.
Anorexia, for short, is an eating disorder that causes people to obsess about their weight and the food they eat. People that suffer from this condition attempt to maintain a weight that is far below normal for their age and height. To prevent weight gain or to continue losing weight, the sufferers may starve themselves or exercise excessively. In most cases, it may not be all about food but an unhealthy way in cope with emotional problems.
While obesity may or may not be self inflicted, anorexia nervosa is also sometimes self-inflicted as some anorexics suffer from eating disorder or have some emotional problems, and not necessarily self-inflicted. Healthy dieting to reduce weight is different from anorexia. While the former is an attempt to control weight, the latter is an attempt to control life and emotions.
Although it is a condition that is not common in developing countries, it is believed to be widespread in the developed countries of Europe and America. Caucasians or white people generally from adolescent age to full grown adults are concerned about their weights. Some are influenced or obsessed by the images of celebrities they see on TVs and posters, and want to be like them. But in some people, it could be as a result of suffering from one eating disorder or another.
There are no specific causes of anorexia and other eating disorders, but it is a complex condition that could arise from a combination of many social, emotional, and biological factors. Although, western countries’ cultural idealisation of being slim plays a major role in this condition, there are many other contributing factors, including environment, emotional difficulties, low self-esteem, and traumatic experiences some people might have passed through in the past.
This complex eating disorder has three key features: refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted body image.
Because of the fear of becoming fat or disgust with how the body looks, eating and mealtimes may be very stressful. The danger with this condition is that if a person with anorexia becomes severely malnourished, every organ in the body can be damaged, including the brain, heart and kidneys. This damage may not be fully reversible, even when the anorexia is under control.
In addition to the host of physical complications, people with anorexia also commonly have other mental disorders as well. They may include: depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders and drug abuse.
While people with anorexia often deny having a problem, the truth is that anorexia is a serious and potentially deadly eating disorder. Fortunately, recovery is possible unlike in obesity where the only solution most times is a gastric bypass surgery which is quite expensive and sometimes the chance of survival after surgery in terribly obese people may be slim.
A physician, Dr. Halimat Mohammed explains that “the exact cause of anorexia nervosa is unknown, but as with many diseases, it is probably a combination of biological, psychological and environmental factors.”
Mohammed points out that there may be genetic changes that make some people more vulnerable to developing anorexia, but it is not clear specifically how genes could cause anorexia. The brain chemicals (serotonin) involved in depression may also be responsible though,”she says.
Emotional characteristics may contribute to anorexia as some young women may have obsessive-compulsive personality traits that make it easier to stick to strict diets and forgo food despite being hungry.” says Mohammed.
According to the medical practitioner, environmental factor such as modern western culture emphasizes being slim in order to keep up with the modern trend in fashion for ladies. Peer pressure may also influence the desire to be thin, particularly among young girls. This could result in anorexia.
Numerous complications from mild to fatal could result from anorexia, the doctor said. Death may occur suddenly from abnormal heart rhythms or an imbalance of electrolytes from minerals such as sodium, potassium and calcium that maintain the balance of fluids in your body, he adds.