Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

"No Anorexia" Model Dies. She Tried to Help Others But Couldn't Help Herself

Isabelle Caro, a former model who appeared in the notorious No Anorexia campaign a few years ago has died. There's a tribute at The Guardian, which includes this quote from Caro about why she participated in what some people viewed as a horrifying campaign: 

“I thought this could be a chance to use my suffering to get a message across, and finally put an image on what thinness represents and the danger it leads to – which is death.” Isabelle Caro (12 September 1982 – 17 November 2010)

These organizations offer help:

National Alliance on Mental Illness

WebMD

WomensHealth.gov

PsychCentral

New York Times Health Guide

You'll Be Dead Before You're Thin Enough narrated by Julianne Moore at Facetheissue.com

 

 

Teen Vegetarians: Covering for an Eating Disorder?

Here's an interesting story from this week's Time about teens and vegetarianism. They're reporting on a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health that raises the disturbing possibility that some teens become vegetarians to mask an ongoing eating disorder. The study, conducted in Minnesota, included more than 2500 people aged 15 to 23 years. The surprising finding was the percentage of vegetarians who reported binge eating. Here's an excerpt from the Time story:

"...approximately 20% of the vegetarians turned out to be binge eaters, compared with only 5% of those who had always eaten meat. Similarly, 25% of current vegetarians, ages 15 to 18, and 20% of former vegetarians in the same age group said they had engaged in extreme weight-control measures such as taking diet pills or laxatives and forcing themselves to vomit. Only 1 in 10 teens who had never been vegetarian reported similar behavior."

This reminded me of comments that my friend Lou Aronne, MD made when I interviewed him for an article on vegetarianism that appeared in Westchester magazine late last year: 

"While it’s challenging enough for adult vegetarians to make the proper dietary choices, Dr. Aronne is alarmed by the kind of vegetarianism he sees practiced primarily by poorly informed teenage girls. “They eat toast with butter and jam for breakfast, a cheese sandwich for lunch, and pasta with tomato sauce for dinner,” says Dr. Aronne. “This is a problem because it’s totally unbalanced. Where are the vegetables? Starch is not a vegetable. If you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables!” Several studies, including one published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 2001, have found evidence that teenage girls who become vegetarians are at higher risk than others of having or developing eating disorders and engaging in unsafe weight control behaviors. In a study of young Australian women, which included more than 9,000 participants, vegetarians and semi-vegetarians reported more depression than non-vegetarians (22 percent vs. 15 percent), along with low iron levels and menstrual difficulties."

Autism and Vaccines: Autism One Conference, Chicago

AMEDnews reports evenhandedly on the Autism One conference, which was held in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend.One of the featured speakers was Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician whose 1998 paper in The Lancet claimed an association between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism in 12 kids. But this is what's happened since then, quoting from AMEDNews:

"Every so often, a small study such as the one conducted by Dr. Wakefield comes along to buttress that belief. In this case, the momentum has held, even though 10 of the 13 authors on the 1998 paper published a statement inThe Lancet in 2004 retracting the original interpretation that their data indicated a causal link between MMR and autism, and Dr. Wakefield faces significant professional scrutiny."

That is, Dr. Wakefield is in danger of losing his license to practice. In June, the UK health authorities declared that measles is now endemic in that country and confirmed a recent measles-related death. In the US, measles rates are at their highest since 2001. It's more than spots: encephalitis and pneumonia are just two possible complications.

Damage done.

Suicide Attempts in People with Anorexia Nervosa

A study just published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine details the risk of suicide in a group of 432 patients (410 of them women, of course) with anorexia nervosa. Among the results, translated here from the medicalese in the journal:

• A total of 16.9% of the group attempted suicide.
• The rate of suicide attempts in people who merely limited what they ate (the restrictive form of the disorder) was lower than in the group overall, at 7.4%.
• People with anorexia who also purged had a higher suicide attempt rate--26.1%.
• People with anorexia who also engaged in binge eating had the highest suicide attempt rate--29.3%.
• When the researchers accounted for the effect of depression on suicide risk, they found that substance abuse issues and a bunch of impulse-control problems increased the risk that a person with anorexia would try to off herself.
  

Help here:
NAMI
MayoClinic
MedlinePlus
National Eating Disorders Association
Anorexia nervosa in men
National Athletic Trainers Association
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