What are Eating Disorders?

Eating Disorders are a series of disorders related to food, in which physical and psychological consequences can occur. There are several eating disorders, but the most common are anorexia and bulimia, since they are the diseases that have the most dissemination and propaganda both in the media and in the health field to achieve their prevention. Anorexia was described for the first time by Lasegue in 1873, as he mentioned a disorder whose characteristics were extreme thinness and amenorrhea. Later in 1874, Gull called it “Anorexia Nervosa”, meaning a nervous loss of appetite. In these definitions of the disorder anorexia nervosa, emphasis is placed on food rejection as the main component of the disease; It is now known that it is not only about rejecting food, but that this condition brings with it a series of psychological disorders. There is also the disorder called bulimia nervosa, which in 1979 began to be considered a variant of anorexia nervosa since Russell observed three main factors in some of his patients: A powerful impulse toward food that brings with it an episode of overeating. Induce vomiting to avoid gaining weight. An exaggerated fear of gaining weight. There are several factors that cause the appearance of eating disorders, the most notable of which are the following: The media The impact of advertising Family attitudes regarding physical appearance and food Social pressure to be thin and of good physical appearance Physical and sexual abuse Criteria In people who suffer from an Eating disorder presents a series of characteristic behaviors, for example, in anorexia the criteria established by the DSM-IV can be taken to consider it as a disease. This manual states that the following factors are involved in anorexia nervosa: Refusal to maintain body weight above the minimum normal for age and height. An excessive fear of gaining weight even when your weight is below normal. Denial of your low body weight. Amenorrhea. On the other hand, in bulimia nervosa, the DSM-IV gives the following characteristics: Recurrent episodes of excessive and compulsive eating. An episode of compulsive eating occurs in a period of time where the patient consumes food in quantities much higher than what a healthy person consumes. Feeling of lack of control over food consumption during episodes. Use of compensatory behaviors to avoid overweight. Present a minimum average of two episodes of excessive and compulsive eating and two compensatory behaviors per week for at least three months. Another disorder that presents certain recurring characteristics is compulsive eating, which is identified by eating regardless of the body’s needs. People who suffer from it do not tend to purge as in the disease of bulimia, but they always find themselves on diets and fast during times when they lose control of their intake. Other Eating Disorders There are other eating disorders that are not so common to see or identify because they have not been given enough publicity nor have health campaigns been carried out against them. For example, binge eating disorder, where the person has a period of excessive eating on the verge of feeling that the stomach or he’s going to burst and he won’t stop eating; When he can’t take it anymore, he vomits it all up and with the space available in his stomach he continues eating. Vigorexia is another disorder, although not specifically an eating disorder. It is related to what this disease entails in itself. But it is a behavior present in those people who suffer from anorexia and bulimia or it also usually occurs on its own. It is more common in men than in women and is characterized by wanting to stay slim through exercise. The goal of these people is to achieve a certain muscle mass much greater than what they already have. The time they dedicate to exercise is sometimes affected since they do not want to interrupt their exercise routine. They also have alterations in their body image, they believe themselves to be thinner than they are, and they may even engage in inappropriate behavior such as poor diet or the consumption of drugs that are harmful to health such as steroids.