Taking a bite out of eating disorders According to a new Harvard University study, eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia occur twice as often among women as among men, and are most prevalent among women under the age of 20. These researchers also say that binge eating is more common than once thought. No wonder middle schools are beginning to discuss these issues. Parents play a critical role, but coaches, teachers, and marketers play a part. Sending messages that reinforce a girl's sense of her own worth will reduce eating disorders, and perhaps finally define beauty as more than skin deep.

Binge eating is now top disorder The most common eating disorder is neither anorexia nor bulimia - it is binge eating, by far. Binge eating is consuming unusually large amounts of food in a short period of time at least twice a week. The researchers found that 3.5 percent of women and 2 percent of men had been binge eaters. Binge eating seems to be a more stubborn condition. People who reported binge eating said they had it for eight years on average, compared with 1.7 years for anorexia. "That was very surprising because one of the things we thought we knew about anorexia was that it was chronic and tended to persist for long periods of time," Hudson said. "Binge eating was thought to kind of come and go. These data suggest that's not the case." Not surprisingly, binge eaters were at increased risk for obesity.

Art show explores emotional toll of eating disorders The show, entitled "The Art of Recovery: Insights into Eating Disorders," is composed of 15 pieces of art ranging from painting and sculpture to poetry and collage, all of which were created by those recovering from an eating disorder. "I think a lot of our clients are really creative and artistic, and an eating disorder tends to numb that," says Lynne Victory, a nutritionist and coordinator of the show. "By bringing out their creativity they're able to heal more. So it's using your creative outlets to heal."

Almost Half Of Young Women With Anorexia Or Bulimia Also Suffer From Some Personality Disorder Among the young women diagnosed as having anorexia or bulimia, 48.5% also suffer from a personality disorder. Even though treatments are effective, the percentage of relapses is still high. Being able to unravel and understand how personality disorders influence the tendency to relapse can also help increase the treatment's chances of success.

U Of M Study: Girls Shouldn't Obsessively Weigh In Teen girls who frequently weighed themselves were more likely than others to resort to unhealthy dieting measures, and some ended up gaining close to twice as much weight, a study of Minnesota students found. The most scale-obsessed girls in the University of Minnesota research were more likely to skip meals, use diet pills or laxatives, smoke, and binge and vomit to lose weight. The act of getting on the scale, weighing yourself every day, can lead to an unhealthy weight preoccupation, And teenage girls who are concerned about their weight are at great risk for unhealthy weight control behaviors.

New Info on Eating Disorders in Stanford/Packard Children's Study Parenting a child with an eating disorder--monitoring meals, friends and activities--can be a full-time job. But the study from researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital indicate a need for increased vigilance in pre-teen weight loss in seemingly healthy children. The study, which appears in the December issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, indicates that pre-teens with eating disorders tend to lose weight more quickly than adolescents with the condition and weigh comparatively less at diagnosis.

Teen Use of Eating Disorders Web Sites on the Rise
"People have always picked up and shared dangerous information," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Rebecka Peebles, an instructor of adolescent medicine at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University School of Medicine. "The Internet gives instant access to new and potentially dangerous information kids may not have encountered on their own." And parents often unaware children are visiting dangerous sites, study finds. Teens with eating disorders often turn to the Web -- sometimes for help with their problem but also for new suggestions on ways to lose weight. Parents, however, seem largely unaware that their children are using the Internet to visit eating disorder Web sites. Those are two conclusions from a new study in the December issue of Pediatrics that also found that teens who look for eating disorder information on the Internet are more likely to be hospitalized for their condition than teens who don't turn to the Web.

New study shows teenage girls' use of diet pills doubles over five-year span A study released today by the University of Minnesota's "Project EAT" (Eating Among Teens)  ...found that high school-aged females' use of diet pills nearly doubled from 7.5 to 14.2 percent. By the ages of 19 and 20, 20 percent of females surveyed used diet pills. more