Queries Regarding Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders have long been associated with obsessive thinking and emotions. Counseling, nutritional education and behavior modification has been the traditional method of treating these sometimes fatal disorders. Researches suggest that Neuroplasticity could cure eating disorders and other mental health disorders by using a method called Directed Neuroplasticity, a process contradicts the assumption that emotions and thoughts associated with those emotions are fixed and behavior is destined to repeat itself.

Eating disorders, which include bulimia, anorexia and binge eating, have been steadily and worryingly growing over the last three decades. It is difficult to say exactly how much or how extensive it has grown. Neuroplasticity will allow the brain to change itself affecting the way its perceptions, it thinks, the way it responds to situations and behavior. The brain uses electromagnetic impulses to communicate between nerves. Clinicians will be able to make specific changes using stimulation that redirects communication patterns from compulsive thoughts to a more positive thought process. The brain of an eating disorder sufferer will change its focus from food and body image to non-destructive images.

At the nervous system neuronal connectors will eventually dissipate and be replaced by the new connectors. The negative messages that lead to poor body image and suggest the destructive behavior they have suffered with for years will come to an end. There are various statistics available, but they must be looked at with care as there are certain limitations. Different researches have used different criteria which makes it hard to integrate the information. Also a characteristic of an eating disorder is that there is a feeling of embarrassment in purging for example as well as secretiveness involved. This means that revelation is limited.

Another factor is that the eating disorder has to be diagnosed as such, and there are a number of people suffering from an eating disorder who are not undergoing treatment or are in denial, or even unaware of their disorder. What is known is that eating disorders have been on the increase and include not only adolescent people, but younger children, both boys and girls. They also include men and women over twenty in several cases over seventy. Women from the baby boomer generation can also be at danger as they have grown up with strong image consciousness.

Eating disorder problems are present in different age groups, in different cultural situations, and in both genders. Typically this disorder has been identified at a higher rate in western society, but the numbers of cases are also growing in other cultures.

It is estimated that in USA, 7 million women suffer from an eating disorder, 1 million men suffer from an eating disorder, 1% of female adolescents have anorexia and risk of an eating disorder in women is roughly 3 times greater. One in four preadolescent cases of anorexia occurs in boys and the binge-eating disorder affects females and males about equally. About 10% of bulimia and anorexia sufferers are male and about 20% of people with eating disorders who receive no treatment die. This statistic is drastically reduced to 2-3% with proper medical treatment.

• John Palsson
• 05/12/2008, 2:59 PM
• 0 Comments