Eating Disorders Are No Joke

[edisnojoke-blog]

MINNESOTA STARVATION STUDY      

 November 19, 1944 and December 20, 1945: Conscientious objectors enrolled in study with extreme dietary restriction

·    Goal of the study: Find the best way to lose weight and restore weight, because many countries were going through famines.

·      Could be a consciousness objector to war and did not have to go to war and participate in research studies instead

·      Took men put them through 12 week control phase, collect data on what they eat, mood, and activity

·      Over a period of 24 weeks they drastically reduced caloric intake, lose 25% of their pre-starvation weight

·      Marked psychological distress, loss of control eating developed

·      Recovery stage: various diets were tried out to see which was best, learned a lot about understanding eating disorders

·      Offered insights on the biological and psychological effects of starvation and their psychological effects in semi starved state

·      75% reduced state, they were displaying psychological symptoms

·      Learned about what helped them regain weight, what’s more important is psychological state and what happens after you give them free access to food

·      Discovery: Depression score up, did not want to hang out, hysteria, and concern what goes on in the body went up, severe emotional distress in semi starved state

·      Basal metabolic state was impacted, body temp reduced, heart rate went down, respiration changed, pitting : press on flesh that’s swollen it will hold it like a memory foam mattress

RESULTS: 

·      Played with food and made digesting concoction

·      Collected food recipes and smuggled food and processing food

·      Ate things that was drawn out in hours

·      Vivid dreams about food, and cooking

·      Making collages and pictures of food

Eating disorder like behaviors after starvations:

·      Food preoccupation


·      Even after 12 weeks of re-feeding, the men frequently complained of increased hunger immediately following a large meal.

·      Binge eating and compensatory purging

·      Loss of control over eating and purged behavior he chose to behave in so this behavior developed before had no problems before

·      Strong impact of forcefully changing behavior and lose sense of control and guilt over eating

·      Underline biology and psychology of eating disorder

·      Tease apart from depression and eating disorder

[edisnojoke-blog]

*The founding father of Bulimia Nervosa 

 *Russell who got credit for characterizing BN and coining the term 

* Russell included 30 case studies 

 *Russel sign: hand from acid corroding hand from self induced vomiting

[edisnojoke-blog]

How are eating disorders different now compared to back then?

Symptoms may have first been described centuries ago all the way back to late 4th, 5th, 8th centuries such as starvation related to demonic things or saint that the person should not eat or only holy sacrament 

Late 4th Century, and 5th-8th Centuries: self-starvation attributed to demonic possession, potential death from self-starvation documented in early Christian documents 

Ex: Saint Catherine/Veronica excessive exercise and induced vomiting 

Back then it was not concern for shape or weight, but it was for religious reason.

[edisnojoke-blog]

Quiz time!!!!

Why was bulimia nervosa not an official diagnosis until 1979? 

A. People did not believe pay attention to BN because they were too preoccupied with AN 

B. Weight and shape was not a concern until around the 1940s 

C. Cult of thinness emerged 

D. B&C

[edisnojoke-blog]

Along with....

The drive for thinness was not central feature or endorsed motivator until 1960s   

There was an abundance of food following the Great Depression 

About fear of sexuality-->fear of fatness/looking a certain way 

Shift might have occurred because of great depression, economic change and food availability. Russel said it’s a fear of fatness

[edisnojoke-blog]

Who were the fasting girls of the 18th and 19th century? 

Girls in the Victorian times that gained popularity because they claimed they did not eat to survive. Some were not eating or some were sneaking food and did not eat in front of other people.

[edisnojoke-blog]

William Gull first coined the term AN in 1873 

[edisnojoke-blog]

So, who are the other people?

•1840: Imbert describes anorexie nerveuse    

•1860: Chipley describes sitomania: an abnormal craving for food. 

 •Lasègue also viewed abnormal of menstration and the state of being thin and weak as the consequence of refusing to eat food and not the core features of AN  

[edisnojoke-blog]

Quiz time!

Who first coined the term Anorexia Nervosa?

A.William Gull in 1873 

B.Ernest-Charles Lasègue in 1873 

C.Chipley in 1860 

D.Imbert in 1840