Eating Disorder News Updates

Reading Fashion Magazines Can Give Women The Blues I'm often emailed with questions about the correlation between fashion magazines and eating disorders. This HealthScout.com article explores that very subject. "Researchers found that women who looked at advertisements featuring stereotypically thin and beautiful women showed more signs of depression and were more dissatisfied with their bodies after only one to three minutes of viewing the pictures. The women who registered the biggest drop in self-image after viewing the pictures were those who already felt bad about themselves to begin with, said Laurie Mintz, lead author of the study and an associate professor of educational and counseling psychology at University of Missouri-Columbia"

Disarming Eating Disorders WebMd and Msnbc.com recently published an article which considers how eating disorder in children can be averted with healthy attitudes at home. "Unhealthy eating habits and distorted body image attitudes have a negative impact on the emotional and physical well-being of children." WebMd's expert gives parents advice "on how to combat these mixed messages and teach children healthy habits and positive feelings throughout their lives"

Web Sites Promote Anorexia and Bulimia as a 'Lifestyle' We've discussed and debated these pro-anorexia/bulimia sites before, so this isn't anything new. This recent HealthScout.com article further explains how doctors and other experts are 'appalled' with the increasing popularity of 'pro-ana' sites. "Experts say the sites, some of which include message boards and chat rooms, probably wouldn't cause the average person to develop an eating disorder. But they could trigger the irrational fear of becoming fat in someone prone to it. And the sites can certainly worsen an eating disorder in people who already have one by giving them the 'how-to' tips on starvation, and by convincing them their warped perceptions of food and body image are shared by many."

Appetite Hormone Linked to Bone Health At Cnn.com is an interesting article which reviews recent research into the effects of appetite hormones on bone health. "Researchers have spotted a likely new reason for bone loss that afflicts women and teenage girls who exercise so much or eat so little that they wind up starving themselves. The focus is on the appetite hormone leptin, which is produced by fat cells and influences brain chemistry that regulates appetite. When fat cells are plump, leptin levels are high. When fat cells are lean, leptin levels are low."

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