(17-02-07) Binge eating bigger eating disorder than anorexia and bulimia combined in US

The first national survey of eating disorders in the US has shown that binge eating is a widespread disorder in the country, and is more common than anorexia and bulimia combined.
Over 9,000 people participated in the survey, and it was discovered that binge eating afflicts 3.5 per cent of women and 2.0 per cent of men at some point in their lives.

So far as affliction anorexia nervosa, a disorder characterised by an obsessive desire to be thin, is concerned, 0.9 per cent of women and 0.3 per cent of men reported having suffered from the condition.

And, 1.5 per cent of women and 0.5 per cent of men reported the condition of bulimia, in which binge eating is followed by self-induced vomiting or the use of laxatives.

"The most striking finding is the emergence of binge eating as a major public-health problem," the New Scientist quoted lead researchers James Hudson of Harvard's McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, as saying.

He believes that binge eating, a condition wherein people cannot stop from eating well beyond the point of being full at least twice a week, is a chronic and persistent condition in the US that is under-reported and under-diagnosed, which is contributing to a rise in obesity.

"I suspect that the connection that we have drawn in this study is just the tip of the iceberg of the problem of out-of-control eating and its relationship to obesity," Hudson says.

The researchers say that on an average, binge eating disorders may last up to about eight years, and that health risks linked to it include obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke.

The survey also found that bulimia appears to last a similar amount of time, while anorexia seems to last 1.7 years on average.

"Contrary to what people may believe, anorexia is not necessarily a chronic illness. In many cases, it runs its course and people get better without seeking treatment," say the researchers. (ANI)

Fonte: Dailyindia.com

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