In a March 17 article on BCLocalNews.com, writer Martin van den Hemel reported that Canadian health experts are becoming increasingly aware of the prevalence of eating disorders among men and boys:

Over the last few years, researchers have come to the realization that as many as one in four who suffer from anorexia or bulimia are male, said University of B.C. professor Dr. Laird Birmingham, senior scientist with the Child and Family Research Institute in Vancouver.

"Previously, some people thought eating disorders didnt occur much at all in males, whereas other people in certain centres that specialized in males with eating disorders thought they were very common," Birmingham said [March 16], ahead of a public forum on eating disorders in Richmond [on March 24].

But a cross-Canada nutrition survey conducted by the federal government four years ago suggested men accounted for 20 to 25 per cent of people with eating disorders.

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In a March 24 article for Canada's Nanaimo News Bulletin, writer Jenn Marshall reported on the struggle that many rural Canadians have to endure in their search for effective eating disorder treatment:

Cindy Dobbe, president of The Looking Glass Foundation, a Vancouver-based charitable organization made up of individuals who have watched someone struggle with an eating disorder, said public treatment in Canada falls woefully short of demand.

If people cannot get into the seven-bed program at St. Pauls Hospital or the 14-bed program for youth at B.C. Childrens Hospital, their options are relying on limited government-funded outpatient services (the nearest one for Nanaimo residents is in Victoria) or paying for treatment privately -- Dobbe re-mortgaged her house to send her own daughter for treatment in Arizona several years ago.

The foundation is raising money to open Canadas first private, non-profit treatment facility for adolescents on property it bought on Galiano Island. The only hurdle remaining is final approval from the province.

The proposed facility would accept patients who have already been medically stabilized in hospital.

"If we filled eight beds at $800 a day, we could give away 12 beds," said Dobbe.

Next month, the foundation is also starting up online support groups for youth, adults and parents and caregivers, which people from across the province will be able to access once a week.

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A group of Canadian pediatricians will take part in a national study aimed at better understanding eating disorders in the very young.

"The survey by the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program is the first ever attempt to measure rates of bulimia nervosa in children aged five to 18," reported the Harbor City Star. "The study is driven in part by a recent trend noticed by doctors to see eating disorders appear at earlier ages among children."

In Toronto, hospital researchers have been surprised to find symptoms of bulimia in children younger than 12, an age which was previously believed to be the limit for how early eating disorders can develop.

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