Long Term Effects of Anorexia Nervosa to Young Women’s Health.

Hypothesis: anorexia nervosa can cause a lasting psychological and physical consequences to young women’s health.

Introduction: Anorexia nervosa is a disorder characterized by a large weight loss, a fear of weight gain, and faulty eating patterns. It is usually thought of as a disorder of young women, particularly girls with their teens. Anorexia nervosa affects about one to four of every 400 young girls. Anorexic young women looks like a victim of starvation, they may insist that they are fat.

90 % of women are victims of anorexia nervosa and surveys suggest that up to 1 per cent of schoolgirls and female university students have anorexia nervosa The cause of anorexia nervosa is unknown, although it's likely that both inherent biological factors and factors in the person's social environment play a part. Puberty, relationship problems, bullying, abuse, and other life stresses are all believed to be potential triggers of anorexia. There may also be peer pressure to lose weight.

Symptoms: Weight loss of at least 15 per cent below the normal ideal body weight for a person of the same sex, age and height. Stopping of periods or delayed development of puberty. Self-induced weight loss and take excessive exercise. Sufferers have a constant fear of gaining weight, as well as a feeling of being fat. They may lose interest in socializing with friends.

I chose anorexia nervosa because this is a very interesting topic for me to talk about and it also inspired me as a young woman to take good care of my body. This topic might also help me and many young women not to starved their self in order to look skinny.

Findings: Anorexia nervosa are severe to young women and in many cases life- threatening. Studies of the effects of prolonged starvation show that the heart itself can shrink. Young women with anorexia report stomach pain, constipation and they may feel full soon after starting to eat. They may also have mild anemia, swollen joints, and they may feel dizzy when standing up. Their body’s immune system may be affected which may impair the body’s ability to fight infections.

The physical consequences for some anorexic patients, their bones were so thin that they may fracture easily and those patients often develop problems with their skin. They may also have emaciated appearance, dry skin, sometimes yellowish, brittle hair and nails, and subnormal blood pressure. Lanugo,a fine type of hair may grow on the patients face and neck.

Anorexic young women are paranoid, they may have fixed ideas about their body images. They release chemicals in the body called ipioids-naturally produced substances that create a psychological high, a feeling of elation. Anorexic continues to starve herself because starvation releases these ipioids, which makes her feel good.

Pleasure and enjoyment during eating are replaced by guilt, anxiety, and ambivalence. Mood tends to be depressed, irritable, anxious and unstable often leading to increased social isolation. They may experience psychomotor retardation, severe bingeing and purging, and inability to perform activities of daily living.

The findings had supported my topic research, that young women who suffered anorexia nervosa can have a lasting consequences on their physical and psychological health. Based on the findings anorexia nervosa is one of the leading cause why many young women starved to death. I accepted the finding on my research because it proved that anorexic young women suffered many consequences in order to look skinny and have a perfect body image.

Conclusion: I conclude that anorexia nervosa can have a lasting physical and psychological consequences to young women’s health that lead many of them in danger or death. Young women with anorexia suffered from starvation and depression in order to have a skinny body. For young women “To be thin is said to be beautiful and to be beautiful is to be popular”. Young women don’t think about the physical and psychological consequences of losing weight because all they care is to look skinny and pretty.

Work Cited Video: www.youtube.com Books: Berg,F.(1998).Afraid to Eat:Children and Teens in Weight Crisis.North Dakota:Healthy Weight Publishing Network.Science 51,59,67-77,85-88. Robbin,P.(1998).Anorexia and Bulimia.New Jersey:Enslow Publishers,Inc.Science 25-42. Articles: Campbell,D.(2009).Anorexia risk could be predicted:Retrived March 29,2009,from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/29/anorexia-study. Powell,J.(2011).Anorexia Nervosa.Retrieved March 30, 2011, from http://netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/anorexianervosa.htm. Shaw,G.(2010).Anorexia:The Body Neglected.Retrieved May 23, 2010, from http://webmd.com/mentalhealth/anorexia-nervosa/features/anorexiabody-neglected. Video: www.youtube.com