Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. 480,000 people die each year from eating disorders (ED) or ED-related illnesses. Some of these illnesses can be caused from your body being overweight, underweight and/or nutrient deprived. Although it’s often thought that minorities do not suffer from eating disorders, statistics show that the rates of minorities with ED’s are similar to those of whites.
The myth that eating disorders don’t exist in the minority community often comes from a lack of education of what eating disorders are and how they affect our mind and body.
Unfortunately, many minorities believe that Anorexia is the only “true” eating disorder that causes harm. Anorexia is classified when one physically starves him/her self by withholding food from the body. Although Anorexia gains most publicity in the media, and is very deadly, there are two additional classified ED’s defined in the Diagnostic & Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders. The other two classified ED’s are Bulimia and EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Other Specified). Bulimia occurs when a person binges on large amounts of food and then purges to rid his/her body of the food. Although EDNOS can include symptoms such as chewing the food and then spitting it out, the most common EDNOS plaguing the minority community is Binge-eating disorder. This disorder is characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating, but unlike bulimia, the person does not purge or use other methods to rid his/her body of the food. The person with Binge-eating disorder has an uncontrollable desire to eat food without the ability to stop.
In efforts to help you further understand the dangers of eating disorders, following are the symptoms/dangers associated with the top three most common eating disorders.
The symptoms/dangers that Binge Eating Disorder (BED) could have on our body:
- Obesity
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Diabetes
- Osteoarthritis
- Heart attack
The symptoms/dangers that Bulimia could have on our body:
- Tooth decay
- Dehydration
- Inflammation & rupture of the esophagus
- Irregular or abnormally slow heart rate
- Heart failure
- Stomach ulceration
The symptoms/dangers that Anorexia could have on our body:
- Starvation
- Dehydration
- Muscle and cartridge deterioration
- Osteoporosis
- Irregular or abnormally slow heart rate
- Heart failure
Up to 24 million people in the United are suffering from eating disorders and one out of five women are suffering. Eating Disorders are not something to take lightly. If you have an eating disorder or are concerned about someone you love, get help immediately.
