Statistics on Anorexia
The statistics on anorexia are pretty grim. There are more people with anorexia today than ever before. There are over 8 million people with eating disorders and anorexia is one of the main eating disorders. Over 7 million with this disease is female and the other million is male. There are many more men who have anorexia than one would think because you normally hear about the girls or women and hardly, if ever, hear about the men or boys. Another report states that one out of every 6 people who suffer from anorexia are male. Many people have even died from eating disorders. Anorexia has sometimes been labeled as the ‘slimmers’ disease or the ‘stars’ or ‘starlets’ disease. This is because people have always believed that they should look like the models or stars they see on television, in movies, or in magazines. There is often peer pressure in school, at work or from other sources and a person feels like they need to lose weight in order to be liked. Sometimes it all stems from past or present abuse from family members or bullies at school. Sometimes there is a lot of pressure at work. No matter what the cause, in most cases, the victim has a very low self esteem and do not think much of themselves or feel they are a failure. Most of the people with anorexia are between 10 and 20 years of age with the average being 17. There are a few cases reported that are under 10 years old and there are some over 20.
Some of the signs and symptoms of anorexia are decreased testosterone (in men or boys)), menstruation stops (in women or girls), anemia, constipation, bloating, nausea, low sodium, low blood pressure, low chloride, kidney problems, heart problems, bone loss, abnormal blood count, fatigue, dizziness, fainting, brittle nails, hair that thins, breaks, or falls out, dry skin, dehydration, thin appearance, and osteoporosis. Anorexia can cause damage to every organ in the body if it is allowed to progress that far. Some of the damage is irreversible. The treatment of anorexia requires both medicinal and psychiatric help. There are both physical and emotional problems involved and both have to be dealt with. The treatment takes a while to accomplish and the victim has to want the help. There needs to be more study done on anorexia and other eating disorders to stop it. The western countries have made the people to believe that they need to be slim in order to get a job, be an actress or model, to belong to the ‘in’ crowd, etc. Young people are very easily swayed to the beliefs of others and to have them believe that they can not succeed unless they are skinny, is absurd. They need to be taught to think more of themselves and have their self esteem built up so they are proud of who they are no matter what size they are.
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