Anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating disorder are classified as mental disorders in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Adrienne Ressler, president of the International Association of Eating...
One-third of all adults in the United States are obese, and children and adolescents between ages 2 and 19 are quickly catching up: 17 percent of them are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each year, billions of...
Alli is a nonprescription, brand-name version of the FDA-approved weight-loss drug, orlistat. Neither Alli nor other orlistat medications have known interactions with any psychotropic medications -- a class of medicines used to treat mental...
Bulimia nervosa is a type of eating disorder in which affected patients self-induce vomiting or excessively use laxatives, diuretics or enemas following eating binges. Women are three times more likely than men to develop bulimia, based upon...
Under-eating and other behaviors associated with anorexia cause a variety of health complications. These complications worsen depending on the duration of the disease as well as the severity of the anorexic person's behaviors. Anorexia can affect...
Adolescence is a time of physical and emotional changes, and parents may be surprised by the changes and development visible in their adolescent children. A mother's perception of her child's body size and weight can be particularly influential in...
The prescription tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline is primarily used to relieve symptoms of depression, and some doctors prescribe it to treat certain eating disorders. While zinc supplements also may be helpful for treating certain eating...
Bulimia is an eating disorder that causes sufferers to have a distorted sense of body image and a strong desire to be thin. Bulimic individuals have compulsions to eat large quantities of food and then often attempt to purge calories by...
Hypokalemia is low potassium in the blood, and hypoglycemia is low glucose in the blood. Hypokalemia and hypoglycemia are dangerous conditions and lack of treatment can lead to several complications. Potassium is necessary for proper heart...
Cardamom is a flavorful spice that is native to Vietnam and China, but is also grown in India and Sri Lanka. Extracted from the seeds of the cardamom pod, this spice can be used in cooking or to make tea. Cardamom is the third most expensive spice...
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder that is marked by frequent eating binges followed by episodes of purging. Purging may be done by self-induced vomiting or through the use of laxatives. The purging episodes are done to prevent weight gain....
Emotional eating occurs when you use food for comforting your mood instead of fulfilling hunger. Emotional eating is not an eating disorder, but it is a common symptom of binge-eating disorder. Depression, anxiety, boredom and a stressful event...
One of the common side effects of Topamax, an anti-convulsant medication from Ortho-McNeil, is weight loss. Therefore, the medication has been used for weight loss in some groups, and some populations have been studied including patients with...
Celexa is a brand name prescription drug that is indicated for treatment of depression, according to its product label. Celexa was developed and manufactured by Forest Pharmaceuticals. The active pharmaceutical ingredient in Celexa is citalopram...
Fatigue is characterized by a lack of energy, and though sleepiness often accompanies fatigue, MayoClinic.com stresses that fatigue and sleepiness are not the same thing. Lifestyle and psychological disorders may cause fatigue, but MayoClinic.com...
Eating disorders affect over 10 million women and teens in the United States, according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). The two primary eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Anorexia is a form of self-starvation....
A report published in the December 8, 2003 issue of "Eating and Weight Disorders," concedes that kidney stones are a recognized complication of anorexia nervosa. Equally, patients with other types of eating disorders have a higher risk of getting...
Prozac is the brand name product of fluoxetine and is available with a doctor's prescription. It is an antidepressant that belongs to the class called the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. It is used for treating depression, panic...
Eating in secret until you're sick with feelings of no control are classic symptoms of binge eating. A binge eater will also feel a sense of powerlessness, disgust, shame and an inclination to reach for food to escape stress or anxiety....
If you've been told you need to gain weight for your health, don't reach for the cake and ice cream just yet. There are some foods that are high-calorie, but are also high in saturated fat, like your favorite desserts. There are, however, healthy...
Obesity refers to a serious medical condition in which people accumulate a great deal of excess body fat. Obesity can lead to high blood pressure, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes and depression. Therefore, weight loss is necessary to decrease the...
The media portray thinness as an ideal, and public-health messages focus on the dangers of obesity. The other end of the spectrum, being underweight, receives comparatively little attention. It is, nonetheless, a significant issue. The latest...
Binge eating disorder is an illness characterized by recurrent binge-eating episodes during which a person eats excessive amounts of food. The binge eater feels helpless to control or change behaviors and often suffers from serious emotional and...
Potassium deficiency is a medical condition that develops when your body has inadequate levels of potassium. This condition, which is also referred to as hypokalemia, most commonly occurs in patients who struggle with an eating disorder or kidney...
Anorexia nervosa is an illness that affects people from every socioeconomic level and is found in nearly 1 percent of adolescent girls and young women, according to the University of Pittsburgh. It is a condition that causes you to become overly...
In the summer of 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nine states had an obesity rate of 30 percent or higher. Only nine years earlier, no state had an obesity rate of 30 percent or more. With that kind of increase in...
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, compulsive overeating disorder---more commonly called binge eating disorder---is the most common of all eating disorders. It affects more than 3 percent of...
Cathartic colon occurs when there is nerve damage to the colon as a result of laxative abuse, defined as using laxatives more than three times weekly for at least one year. It is a complication most associated with the eating disorder that...
Vitamin B12, a member of the vitamin B complex, is an essential vitamin. Your body cannot produce essential vitamins but requires them for normal biological functioning. Typically, your body quickly releases excess B vitamins in your urine, but...
