An overweight bride-to-be who wanted to lose an extreme amount of weight before her wedding died after spending 11 weeks on a crash diet. Samantha Clowe, 34, collapsed from heart failure after eating just 530 calories a day for nearly three months.

A Sept. 10 article in the British paper Daily Mail provided the following details:

An inquest in Leeds was inconclusive about whether the controversial LighterLife diet - which restricts people to 530 calories a day for a maximum of 12 weeks - played a part in her death.

But this is the second reported case in three years of a woman who has died from similar heart failure after losing significant amounts of weight on the LighterLife plan.

Home Office pathologist Dr Alfredo Walker said a post-mortem examination failed to establish a cause of death, adding: "But it may be related to her low calorie diet and weight loss."

West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff said it was "highly likely" Miss Clowe died from cardiac arrhythmia - a potentially fatal condition involving an irregular heart beat.

Professor John Garrow, a retired obesity and nutrition expert, told the Daily Mail that in individuals who follow a highly restrictive diet, the heart is in danger of being "reduced to a stage at which it can no longer adequately perform what it is there for, namely pumping the blood and you get these disorders of rhythm."

Labels: calorie_restriction, dieting

London’s Fashion Week opens today. And as it reignites the debate over too-thin models, the Royal College of Psychiatrists is asking the British government to do something about pro-anorexia websites.

A Sept. 17 Reuters article provided the following information about the effort to regulate or eradicate websites that encourage the unhealthy eating practices that can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder:

Encouraged by social networking sites like Facebook and "thinspiration" Web sites, growing numbers of Britons are looking online to get tips on how to starve themselves or hide extreme weight loss, says the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

"(These) Web sites normalize illness," said Ulrike Schmidt, chair of the college's eating disorders section.

The report calls on the government to tackle the proliferation of pro-eating disorder sites as part of its wider efforts to safeguard children on the Internet through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS).

Nearly 90 percent of eating disorder sufferers in Britain are teenage girls, and experts report that one in 10 repeatedly visit pro-eating disorder websites.

Labels: online, pro-ana, pro-mia, websites

A study conducted by the University of North Carolina found that 60 percent of women surveyed exhibited some type of disordered eating. A Sept. 19 article by Jean Enerson of Idaho's King 5 News provided the following details:

Secret eating can be just a guilty pleasure or a serious eating disorder. It all depends.

"Eating a large amount of food in a certain discreet period of time, feeling a sense of loss of control, as if you can't control your eating or stop and then a host of criteria - that several have to be met - such as eating in secret, eating until uncomfortably full, and feeling negative about it during or after the eating episode," said Dr. Jay Ashmore, clinical psychologist.

There is a difference between unhealthy eating habits and an eating disorder, but both can cause significant and lasting damage. If you or someone you love is suffering from either of these problems, contact an eating disorder treatment expert to evaluate the problem and determine the best course of action.

Labels: research, unhealthy eating, women

It is becoming more common for children, adolescents and teenagers to incorporate diet drugs into their efforts to lose weight, according to a new study in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

About 75 percent of surveyed youth were found to be using orlistat (brand name: Alli), a drug that has been associated with liver damage.

Using data from the General Practice Research Database, researchers at University College London, found the number of young people receiving prescriptions for anti-obesity drugs increased 15 times since 1999. However, most young people said that they stopped using these medications after a few months.

Labels: drugs, medications, research

Maggie Baumann never expected to get such instant and visceral reactions to her story. Posting on the Web blog Momlogic, she told her story of struggling with eating disorders while she was pregnant. Readers called her everything from selfish to criminal.

A July 16 article by Courtney Perkes of the Orange County Register provided the following details about Baumann's ordeal:

More than 20 years have passed since Baumann, who lives in Laguna Niguel, struggled with anorexia while pregnant. She's now a therapist who specializes in treating the shame and secrecy of eating disorders. But going public with her "pregorexia" in the instant vitriol blogosphere brought back painful emotions of how she harmed her baby and how she punished herself.

"I never imagined the depth of hatred I would receive," Baumann said. "My whole body was just numb reading these things. Then I started to understand where these people were coming from.

"Our readers had a very strong, visceral reaction to her post," Gillian Sheldon, managing editor of Momlogic, told Perkes via e-mail. "Many moms were outraged that her addiction put both her children physically in jeopardy — and made that opinion known. Other moms, however, related and applauded her work and ability to conquer her anorexia."

Anorexia among pregnant women, or pregorexia, is a very real and very serious condition that threatens the health of both mother and child.

Labels: anorexia, pregnancy, pregorexia

“Do you like the way you look?”

Almost one in 13 children ages 10 and 11 years old answered “never” or “almost never” when asked that question by researchers from Harvard University.

• The study found that among the 4,254 children interviewed, many felt pressure to have a perfect body even though they were only ten years old.
  
• Almost six percent of the girls who had normal weights nevertheless had poor body images.
  
• Among boys, 7.6 percent at normal weight disliked their bodies.
  
• Between 10 and 13 percent of the girls who were overweight or obese had poor body images, compared to about 8 percent of the overweight or obese boys.
  
• Boys tended to be dissatisfied if they felt too thin; girls tended to be dissatisfied if they felt they were too fat.
  

“There is a well-established relationship between poor body satisfaction and increased risk of disordered weight control behaviors, including vomiting, fasting, and the use of laxatives and diet pills for weight control," Dr. Bryn Austin, author of the study, wrote in the journal BMC Public Health.

Labels: body_image, self-esteem

The University of Chicago and Stanford University are teaming up to conduct the largest treatment study to date on adolescent bulimia, and they are looking for participants.

A post on the Chicago Sun-Times website provided the following details about the research effort:

• The goal of the study is to determine which of three outpatient treatments is most effective for adolescents: family-based treatment, cognitive-behavioral treatment or supportive psychotherapy.
  
• Each site will recruit 79 participants who will receive free treatment using one of the three methods.
• For more information or to participate, contact study coordinator Lisa Brownstone at 773-834-5677 or e-mail bulimia@yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu.

Bulimia is a dangerous, and potentially life-threatening, eating disorder. Bulimics feel compelled to purge themselves of any food they eat by inducing vomiting, abusing laxatives, or exercising excessively.

The disorder has been associated with a variety of damaging effects, including abnormal heart rhythm, tooth decay and loss of menstruation.

Labels: bulimia, research

Lizzi Miller is considered a plus size model, but she wears a size 12, which average for American women. And she is causing quite a stir with her appearance in the September issues of Glamour magazine.

“Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive blogged on Glamour’s Web site that readers were filled with ‘joy at seeing a woman’s body with all the curves and quirks and rolls found in nature,’ and asked readers to send more feedback on what kinds of images they’d like to see in the magazine,” the New York Daily News reported.

Self magazine came under fire recently for digitally altering an image of singer Kelly Clarkson to make her appear thinner. Though many fashion magazines are clinging to their images of ultra-thin models, it seems the rest of America may be tiring of such unrealistic portrayals of beauty.

Unrealistic, digitally enhanced images of celebrities and models have been blamed for contributing to self-esteem issues among young girls, and for raising the likelihood that these girls will develop eating disorders and other mental health problems.

Labels: fashion, media_influences

A European mental health services provider recently issued a statement linking stress to a rise in eating disorders. The statement was based on research conducted by The Priory Group, Europe’s largest provider of mental health services.

The Priory’s experts believe cultural and lifestyle pressures to have ‘the perfect body’ are resulting in an increase in the number of young women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia and a particular increase in the number of young men coming forward for treatment. (Source: PsychCentral)

Dr. Alex Yellowlees, medical director of the Priory Hospital in Glasgow believes younger generations are being adversely affected by intense pressures to conform to “super-thin” ideals portrayed in the media.

Added to this are increased pressures to achieve academically and vocationally. The combination of performance-based stressors is causing young people to become hyper-critical of themselves, with damaging and sometimes deadly results, Dr. Yellowlees said.

Labels: mental_health, stress

Crystal Renn tried to be the kind of model everyone seemed to want: super-thin. But she quickly grew tired of obsessing about calories, feeling exhausted and suffering from the negative health effects of an overly restrictive diet.

She’s now a plus-size model whose memoir, Hungry, has just been released by Simon & Schuster. Associated Press fashion writer Samantha Critchell reported on Renn's transformation in an Aug. 27 article:

Her moment of epiphany came when "I couldn't walk another step without being exhausted, or having hair clumps falling out." She knew she needed to live in the body she was supposed to have — specifically a curvy size 12. ...

"I got to my lowest point, when I couldn't go lower, and it was either, `I'm going to die and not accomplish the dream,' or, `I can become a plus-size model and keep the dream,'" she said in an interview. "I am healthy now, the healthiest I've ever been in my life — both physically and mentally."

Renn doesn’t blame the fashion industry for her eating disorder she told the AP -- not entirely, at least. But she does acknowledge that the "carbon-copy" images promoted by the industry have helped create a standard for beauty that is unattainable for most people.

Labels: fashion, modeling

Millions of men and women suffer from eating disorders. And despite the prevalence of such illnesses, myths and misinformation still surround them.

In an article on the website MyOptumHealth, writer Lila Havens attempted to dismiss some of those myths:

Myth: All people with eating disorders are stick-thin.

Fact: People who have anorexia become extremely thin. But not everyone who has an eating disorder is skinny. People who have bulimia or binge eating disorder may be thin, normal weight or even overweight. This can make it harder to spot the problem. Whatever they weigh, they still have an unhealthy relationship with food that can lead to serious health issues.

Myth: Only teenage girls have eating disorders.

Fact: They are more common among girls and women, but a significant number of boys and men have eating disorders too. Those involved in sports that restrict weight (such as wrestling, gymnastics and ballet) may be at special risk.

Eating disorders often begin in the teens and twenties, but they can start at any age. Children as young as 8 years old have been diagnosed with eating disorders.

Another common myth is that anorexia is more dangerous than bulimia or binge-eating. The truth of the matter is that anyone who is struggling with any type of disordered eating needs to access an effective eating disorder treatment program immediately.

Labels: eating disorders, myths

A study from the University of Texas and Stanford University School of Medicine has revealed that girls who use drastic measures to lose weight are more likely to become obese.

For the purposes of this study, "drastic measures" included excessive exercise, radical diets, appetite suppressants, laxatives, and vomiting.

Writing in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Dr. Eric Stice noted that the girls in the study may have miscalculated the amount of food they were eating and the extent to which they were exercising.

Labels: exercise, girls, obesity, teens, weight_gain