WHAT ARE THE 'anorexia and bulimia? The bad example of the VIP There is a disease of which the media are forced to deal with increasing frequency, which often leads to tragic consequences. This is a serious eating disorder anorexia nervosa that the Ministry of Health, for some years, has established would be considered a true epidemic. It, like AIDS and drug addiction, kills many victims, especially among young people.
1. FEAR OF FOOD
Anorexia literally means "without appetite", but in fact the illness is something much more serious than a simple lack of appetite and worrying because it can degenerate into a real repulsion obsessive about food, in severe cases can produce a dangerous state of malnutrition and even death. Anorexia may result from metabolic alterations produced by various kinds of diseases such as gastritis, intoxication or some forms of cancer but can also manifest as neurosis and in this case we speak of "anorexia nervosa", also known as "anorexia nervosa" . Today it is this form that occurs most frequently.
Anorexia nervosa is especially common in girls (the most critical age from 12 to 25 years), the vast majority of whom are not married (over 85%). Until a few years before the disease had been underestimated, considering that it was a simple depression or conduct disorder linked to the recruitment of food: only recently been understood but that was in the presence of a genuine psychiatric illness that was faced with very complex treatment which had to involve sociologists, psychologists, neurologists, dieticians and the same family.
The disease usually develops in a partire da un’immagine distorta del proprio corpo che si percepisce sempre come inadeguato e, in particolare, costantemente in condizioni di soprappeso. Alcune adolescenti, temendo di non ricevere l’approvazione dagli altri, cominciano allora a rifiutare il cibo e a praticare un esercizio fisico esagerato nel tentativo di bruciare calorie. Il fenomeno è in espansione: se fino a poco tempo fa riguardava solo la categoria sociale medio alta, ora esso investe anche i ceti più bassi. Anche la fascia di età si è notevolmente allargata coinvolgendo, negli ultimi tempi, anche le bambine in età pre-puberale e le donne mature.
L’anoressia nervosa non è tuttavia un disturbo tipico del nostro tempo ma affonda le radici già in the Middle Ages, when most women reached their holiness imposing a relentless detachment and absolute need to any land, including the food necessary for survival. At that time, however, the deprivation was not considered a hygienic practice or given for aesthetic purposes but rather a spiritual and physical training which provided the inner perfection. In that case, the deliberate renunciation of the food was not great and anorexia, but asceticism, that is a sacrifice needed to meet God Sissi Even the beautiful and restless wife of Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria, probably suffered from anorexia nervosa accompanied (as refer to the chronicles of the time) by an excessive and frantic activity. Not
is easy to prevent the disease because several causes including the cause, according to some genetic predisposition. Usually occurs in healthy people and, as we said, primarily affects young women, a ratio of 10 to 1 compared to men. Often the girls are anorexic girls submissive and obedient, perfectionist and meticulous, especially in hygiene standards. At a certain age, these girls become teenagers, influenced perhaps by the fashion that offers the absolute thinness as a beauty standard, believing it to be more appreciated by the opposite sex, they begin to restrict food intake, and total refusal to annihilation. It starts, usually, con una dieta dimagrante sollecitata da un problema, forse reale, di soprappeso. Poi, però, a questo primo tentativo, segue una vera e propria ossessione per il controllo del peso e il terrore dell’obesità anche quando risulti evidente la progressiva magrezza corporea. Chi soffre di anoressia non si accontenta mai del proprio aspetto fisico, non raggiunge mai la forma desiderata e nonostante tutti i sacrifici e le privazioni alla fine il risultato è sempre lo stesso: delusione, insoddisfazione, depressione. Spesso l’anoressico non vuole rendere palese il suo tormento e in presenza di estranei assume regolarmente gli alimenti, che poi però, di nascosto, rimette. Con l’aggravarsi della malattia il vomito avviene spontan
buckle directly, sometimes even at the sight of food.
Anorexia nervosa, can cause severe physiological disorders such as, for example, vulnerability to infections and hormonal imbalances that lead to irregularities in the menstrual cycle and, in later stages of life, including osteoporosis due to inadequate intake of calcium and other minerals. Repeated vomiting also create acid which over time can erode the teeth and the mucosa of the esophagus. Finally, anorexia may be associated with sexual problems due to the fact that the partner is no longer seen as a companion, but as an antagonist to which you must demonstrate be better than him. The disease can also result in forms of depression that impair mental processes which, however, return to normal if the condition resolves and the body weight is restored. It is estimated that 5% of cases, anorexia nervosa has unfortunately fatal.
Precise estimates of the prevalence of the disease, this of course only in the industrialized world, it is not easy because many people with anorexia nervosa, especially girls, do not appeal directly to a doctor. Anorexics in the world (Japan has the record of these syndromes) appear to have several million in Italy and it is estimated that at least 6,000 people become ill from this disease, but fortunately molte guariscono. Si tratta come abbiamo detto per lo più di giovani donne che vengono descritte di intelligenza superiore alla norma i cui comportamenti sintomatici non possono essere attribuiti semplicemente a cattive abitudini o a suggestioni che provengono dal mondo esterno, che pure giocano un ruolo importante, ma all’insorgenza di una vera e propria malattia di origine psicologica che nasce da carenze affettive e da conflitti interni. Fra gli elementi determinanti figurano anche i rapporti con gli altri: gli squilibri infatti sono originati spesso dalla difficoltà nei rapporti sentimentali, nei legami affettivi, nelle semplici amicizie e dalla scarsa adesione al nucleo familiare. Si è notato, ad esempio, che modificazioni degli equilibri familiari as emotional loss and separation may be the cause of this disease.
Sometimes the responsibility to feed their children this disease is made to fall on the parents being too pushy and nagging mothers and absent fathers too. Mothers who are facing this prob lema
generally are very concerned about children, but have not received what they actually need: it is not often by their emotional closeness, warmth, physical contact while have often shown to other troubling issues. The father figure, often affirmed in work, but had placed high expectations on their children. All this makes it even more complicated therapeutic intervention.
2. A disease similar to anorexia: bulimia
Another disease linked to eating disorder and bulimia (literally "ox hunger"). It is a disease apparently opposed to anorexia, with which in fact has many similarities. Bulimia consists essentially in an uncontrollable need to ingest large quantities of food then, however, you try to neutralize through behavior directed at preventing weight gain. These large binges create especially in young women, strong feelings of guilt and therefore the need to get rid of as soon as all that is ingested through the so-called "carried elimination "which consist of self-induced vomiting, the frequent use of enemas and recruit exaggerated purges or other drugs. The
overeating followed by vomiting volunteer, was practiced by the ancient Romans who, sprawled on the alcove, ingesting large quantities of food and wine then vomited volunteered to continue to eat and drink incessantly. Actually, most bulimics who these characters were the revelers, that people who ate and drank smodatamen
you and disorderly. Bulimia itself appears only at the end of the nineteenth century in the form of neurosis, often associated with cases of anorexia nervosa. Unlike
anorexia, it may go unnoticed and will not affect the outward appearance of people: the sick man of bulimia in fact shows no obvious changes in weight, because a sufficient amount of food eaten is still absorbed. Lady Diana, the unfortunate wife of Prince Charles, had confessed very naturally to suffer from bulimia, a neurosis that he brought with him from adolescence and, presumably, was aggravated during the difficult marriage to Charles.
factors that favor the appearance of this disease are the same as anorexia nervosa: the obsessive concern of weight gain associated with a perception distorted its appearance. In both diseases a primary disturbance of a psychic nature are accompanied and mix some metabolic and hormonal changes that achieve the state of malnutrition.
Anorexia and bulimia can sometimes be observed in the same person, as in the case of a famous sports journalist who has confessed in the transmission of the "Maurizio Costanzo Show" that he suffered from both disorders and not be out effortlessly.
In many cases it is extremely difficult to recover from these morbid conditions which, as we saw earlier, can also be concluded tragically. In fact, while it is clear that these are diseases that fall within the jurisdiction of psychiatry and psychology, this provides large areas of intersection with other areas of medicine and therefore require, for their solution, a multidisciplinary approach involving physicians, psychologists, social workers, experts in nutrition education and of course, the same family. All these people should be able to operate in a common effort, within appropriate structures here, unfortunately, are still rather weak.
Bulimia occurs towards the 18-19 years, and average a little 'no later than anorexia, but more than half of women diagnosed with anorexia are also bulimic. It is estimated that every year in our country over 10 thousand people fall ill with bulimia, while anorexics e le bulimiche croniche si stima siano 65.000. Un progetto pilota è stato attivato da poco tempo nella Regione Veneto con due centri di diagnosi e cura che prevede anche terapie di lungo termine in collaborazione con le Università di Verona e Padova. Le strutture sono organizzate in modo da rendere l’ambiente terapeutico il più confortevole possibile: niente corsie di ospedale, ma stanze e cucine autonome in modo da consentire alle ragazze di riassaporare il piacere di cucinare e di mangiare. I primi risultati sembrano incoraggianti tanto che il Piano sanitario nazionale si propone di realizzare almeno una comunità terapeutica in ogni Regione.
3. LE NUOVE PATOLOGIE ALIMENTARI
Non sempre il mangiare esagerato porta con sé sensi di guilt-inducing vomiting. In some cases we are witnessing "compensatory overeating," that is exaggerated to an introduction of food made in a conscious way and favored by a lack of understanding of eating problems and underestimating the risks attached to a reckless consumption of food. For some socially frustrated the pleasure of eating is a compensation and reward in itself. Two new diseases are spreading the effects of which are just as devastating as anorexia and bulimia nervosa: the binge eating, namely eating to bursting without rejecting forcefully and Night eating food that is emptying the refrigerator at night. Suffer from the disorder of the first 30% of women who turn al dietologo, mentre del secondo è stato vittima fra gli altri Paolo Villaggio il quale, come lui stesso ha dichiarato, di notte si sentiva come un drogato di calorie in crisi di astinenza e quindi era indotto alla ricerca spasmodica di cibo.
Ultimamente sul panorama delle alterazioni del comportamento alimentare è comparso un ulteriore nuovo disturbo dietetico che colpisce la media borghesia dei Paesi industrializzati portandola alla fame nella ricerca ossessiva di cibi genuini e naturali. La nuova malattia, a cui è stato dato il nome di ortoressia nervosa, si è sviluppata inizialmente in America in seguito alla diffusione del cibo transgenico, ma poi si è diffusa anche in Europa trainata dalla psicosi da mucca pazza.
Tutti sanno that eating healthy is good but when the search for pure food, organic and totally genuine obsession becomes no longer a question of fact related to hygiene and health, but a real disease. And as anorexics and bulimics are obsessed with the amount of food they swallow, the orthorexic are concerned about the quality.
The search for natural food becomes a disease, disorder diet, when the race begins to naturally have a negative impact in the lives of every day, when it prefers to get to hunger rather than consume "unclean food or contaminated." The orthorexic not aware of the risks but also endanger their health by reducing drasticamente nella dieta l’apporto vitaminico e di sali minerali con conseguente avitaminosi, e modifiche della pressione arteriosa e osteoporosi.
