QUESTION: Please write something about the eating sickness that is causing my daughter to shrink away before my eyes.
Tell her it could affect her heart. Please help an anxious mother deal with this problem.
ANSWER: Anorexia nervosa is a serious illness.
Fifteen percent of all anorexia sufferers die, which makes it the deadliest of all psychiatric disorders.
Sudden deaths among anorexics are often due to the serious damage that the disorder causes to the heart. Researchers have known for a long time that anorexics have abnormal heart rhythms, including heart rates that are too fast or slow or that lack the proper rhythm.
Their hearts are also shrunken in size.
It had always been thought that when the body is starved, the heart and the brain are spared at the expense of other parts of the body, but an anorexic's heart appears to lose more weight and size proportionately than the rest of the body.
The size of the left ventricle, one of the chambers of the heart, in anorexics is especially reduced.
Bulimia eating and then vomiting can also cause heart problems due to chemical imbalances in the body. Because of these heart changes, anorexics cannot exercise as long as normal during exercise stress tests.
Their heart rates and blood pressures do not respond normally to the extra effort of exercise, as a healthy person's would.
It is still not known whether the heart returns to normal after the patient regains her weight or whether these changes are permanent.
Some studies have shown that the heart does increase in size as weight is gained. Your daughter needs professional treatment, and even the concern of a mother may not be enough to get her on the right path.
This warning should be clear enough to help make her seek medical care.
The material contained here is "FOR INFORMATION ONLY" and should not replace the counsel and advice of your personal physician.
Promptly consulting your doctor is the best path to a quick and successful resolution of any medical problem.
