Health

Overeating and excessive dieting both increase a woman's health risks, but the effects become more life-threatening when preoccupation turns to disorder

What are eating disorders?
Eating disorders are a range of illnesses characterised by psychological and behavioural disturbances associated with food and weight. These are mainly psychological problems that people try to solve by controlling their food intake. (This does not include problems with weight and appetite that are found with severe physical illnesses such as cancer.)

The two main eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. There are many physical problems associated with the profound weight loss, self-induced vomiting and laxative abuse found in these illnesses, which can lead to severe, sometimes life-threatening, complications.

What is anorexia nervosa?
Although associated in many people's minds with adolescent girls, anorexia can occur at any age and in both sexes, though ten times as many women are affected as men.The main feature of anorexia nervosa is weight loss. Some people achieve this purely by restricting their food intake, while others use extra means of weight control, such as self-induced vomiting and abuse of laxatives and diuretics (drugs that increase the amount of urine passed). Excessive exercising can also be used. Some people with anorexia also binge eat.

What are bulimia nervosa and binge eating?
Again more women than men suffer from these disorders. People with bulimia can often be of normal weight, but can also be under- or overweight.

Bulimia is characterised by binge eating. Excessive amounts of food are consumed, associated with a sense of loss of control. Bingeing often follows a period of dietary restraint, and this can lead to the establishment of a vicious circle in which bingeing is followed by further efforts at restraint. The bulimic feels intense guilt, which can often only be overcome by vomiting, use of laxatives and starvation. Bulimia is sometimes associated with other impulsive behaviours such as alcohol and drug abuse, repeated self-harm and stealing.