Huffington Post
Eating Recovery Center In the News: The Huffington Post
Your Family Tree Can Reveal Your Risk for Eating Disorders
In the latest installment of his blog, Dr. Weiner discusses the genetic link underlying eating disorders, and explains why eating disorders, like heart disease, cancer and obesity, should be among the illnesses we look for in family medical histories. Read an excerpt of the blog post below, or click here to view the article in its entirety at huffingtonpost.com.
It’s not uncommon for individuals to consult their family trees to evaluate their predisposition to various illnesses, including heart disease, cancer and obesity. But a disease that tends to be absent from the checklist of dangerous and highly-inheritable illnesses to look for in family medical histories is eating disorders.
The link between genetics and eating disorders
Most people don’t understand the connection between genetics and eating disorders when, in fact, there is a very strong genetic component to these illnesses.* Research has found that 40 to 50 percent of the risk of developing an eating disorder is based on genetics. Anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by extreme low body weight and a refusal to consume sufficient calories to support bodily functioning, has been found to be as inheritable as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Family studies have also supported the genetic link of eating disorders. Compared with the general population, a woman with a mother or sister who has anorexia is 12 times more likely to develop the disease and four times more likely to develop bulimia nervosa. Twin studies have perhaps shed the most meaningful light on the heredity of eating disorders. Among identical twins, whose genetic makeup is 100 percent the same, there is a 59 percent chance that if one twin has anorexia, the other twin will also develop an eating disorder. Among fraternal twins sharing only 50 percent of their sibling’s genes, the incidence of the illness in both twins was lower but still significant. When one twin has anorexia, there is an 11 percent chance that the other twin will also have the illness.
What exactly do you inherit when it comes to eating disorders?
While research to date has helped bring to light the connection between eating disorders and genetics, there is still much to understand, specifically what is inherited. Studies from both the Maudsley Hospital in London and the University of Pittsburgh suggest that variations in the gene for serotonin receptors may play a role in the development of eating disorders. Abnormal serotonin levels are associated with overall more negative moods and obsessions with perfectionism and exactness.**
Posted in Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Huffington Post, In the News, Latest Research •
Eating Recovery Center In the News: The Huffington Post
“Eating Disorders Treatment for Children and Adolescents”
In the latest installment of his Huffington Post blog, Dr. Weiner welcomes the insights of Elizabeth Easton, PsyD, on treatment for eating disorders in children and adolescents. As Clinical Director of Child and Adolescent Services at Eating Recovery Center’s Behavioral Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Dr. Easton understands that parents seeking eating disorders treatment for their children and teens face a distinctive set of uncertainties. Read an excerpt of Dr. Easton’s insights below, or click here to read the Huffington Post article in its entirety.
How are child and adolescent eating disorders treatment different from treating eating disorders in adults?
The fundamental aspects of eating disorders treatment tend to be fairly consistent between adults and children and/or teens. Because these illnesses affect both mind and body, treatment providers will generally offer medical support, psychiatric stabilization and medication. Therapeutic support is also offered from skilled clinicians, including individual therapists, family
therapists and dietitians. However, key differences between programs designed for adults and those catering to younger patient populations pertain to the use of developmentally appropriate treatment plans and the availability of education services to help patients progress in K-12 studies during the course of treatment.
Developmentally sound care requires that the treatment team take into consideration not only the chronological age of patients, but also their developmental stage and their readiness to assume key responsibilities in the recovery process. Some patients who are either chronologically or developmentally young may require more assistance from parents regarding key
elements of the recovery process, like refeeding, weight maintenance and compliance with the post-discharge plan of care. Furthermore, seeking effective treatment for your child or teen doesn’t mean that a child or teen’s academic functioning must suffer. Unlike programs for adults, child and adolescent eating disorders treatment can involve an educational component to help patients move forward with their studies to support a seamless transition back to school following treatment.
What should parents look for in an eating disorders treatment center or provider?
Comprehensive care from skilled experts is the most important element to look for when seeking eating disorders treatment for your child or adolescent. Eating disorders are incredibly complex illnesses, and it’s critical to identify a provider with experience treating the diseases in young patient populations and a record of successful treatment outcomes.
Another characteristic that parents should look for in a treatment provider is an educational component. By this, I mean two things. First, look for programs that make a point of educating parents and families about eating disorders and how to support the recovery of their young loved ones following discharge from treatment. Lasting eating disorders recovery for your child hinges in large part on you gaining a thorough understanding of the illness, as well as learning about and practicing effective strategies for helping to manage recovery. Secondly, treatment programs should offer a structured educational component with adequate support from licensed educators to help young patients maintain academic functioning while in treatment. Intensive eating disorders treatment can be disruptive in the life of a child or teen, and every effort should be made to support them in this area of their lives.
Read more from Dr. Easton on The Huffington Post.
Posted in Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating, Bulimia Nervosa, General, Huffington Post, In the News, Treatment Options •
Eating Recovery Center In the News: The Huffington Post
Too Much of a Good Thing? What You Need to Know About Compulsive Over-Exercising
In the most recent post to his Huffington Post blog, Dr. Weiner discusses compulsive over-exercising, and explains how the behavior often occurs alongside eating disorders, as the motivations underlying the excessive physical activity often stem from food-, body- or weight-related issues. Read an excerpt of his article below, or click here to read the article in its entirety.
Exercise is good for you. This shouldn’t come as shocking news to anyone; the risks of a sedentary lifestyle are abundant and well reported, particularly as the country faces a public health crisis in which one-third of adults and 17 percent of children are obese.*
However, like most things in life, you can get too much of a good thing when it comes to exercise. Compulsive over-exercise is characterized by frequent episodes of excessive physical activity. Individuals will go to great lengths to fit exercise regimens into their schedules, even if it means skipping work, cutting school, avoiding social events with friends and family, even exercising in secret. Instead of supporting health, excessive exercise, inadequate rest and recovery time between physical activities can damage a person’s body and overall health, causing joint injuries, tendonitis, stress fractures, muscle tears, exhaustion, fainting and dehydration.
Compulsive exercise often occurs alongside eating disorders, as the motivations underlying the excessive physical activity often stem from food-, body- or weight-related issues. Many over-exercisers will do so as a result of guilt or shame from just having eaten or binged or to give themselves “permission” to eat. (The latter was recently the target of much scrutiny from the eating disorders awareness community when the idea was used humorously in a Yoplait commercial.) In fact, exercise bulimia is a subset of bulimia nervosa in which an individual is compelled to exercise at an overly excessive level in an effort to burn calories and fat. Just as individuals with bulimia purge calories through vomiting or laxative use, exercise bulimics use physical activity as their compensatory behavior. Over-exercising behaviors can also accompany anorexia nervosa when used in conjunction with severe food and calorie restriction.
Posted in Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating, Bulimia Nervosa, General, Huffington Post, In the News •
Eating Recovery Center In the News: The Huffington Post
In the latest installment of Dr. Weiner’s Huffington Post blog, he discusses “fat talk” and the implications of these weight-related conversations for those with a predisposition for developing an eating disorder.
Simple Words, Serious Consequences: What ‘Fat Talk’ Means
Each day, we’re on the receiving end of a barrage of messages through more and more mediums that encourage us to be thin. It’s the yogurt commercial glamorizing disordered eating thoughts or the tweet urging followers to read an article describing “good” and “bad” foods for weight loss. The underlying message might be cloaked in a word like “beautiful,” “fit” or “healthy,” but more often than not, there’s an implied association with thinness. Under this steady pressure, it’s not uncommon to internalize thin ideology, engrain it in our thought processes and behaviors around food and body image and even impress these same ideals on our loved ones.
These conversations stressing the importance of weight loss — with others or ourselves — have been coined “fat talk” by professionals in the mental health field. We’ve all done it at one point or another, muttering under your breath about your pants that used to feel much looser or asking a friend or loved one if an article of clothing makes you look fat. “Fat talk” is not always damaging — in fact, for many people, these conversations can be a catalyst for a healthier lifestyle and encourage sound eating and exercise habits. However, these seemingly harmless, offhand remarks place an emphasis on weight as a measure of worth, which can have unforeseen and sometimes devastating consequences for individuals prone to eating disorders.
Posted in General, Huffington Post, In the News •
Eating Recovery Center In the News: The Huffington Post
In his bi-weekly blog hosted on The Huffington Post, Dr. Ken Weiner explores the rising incidence of eating disorders in men and boys.
Understanding Male Eating Disorders
In an article in this month’s Marie Claire magazine, Dr. Ovidio Bermudez, a colleague of mine at Eating Recovery Center and a nationally recognized eating disorders expert, noted the heightened prevalence of eating disorders in non-traditional demographic groups. He explained that the health care community has moved away from thinking of eating disorders as a “Caucasian, upper-middle-class, ‘princess’ disease” toward recognizing these illnesses as an “everybody’s disease.”
Underscoring this fact is the rising incidence of eating disorders among the male demographic, challenging the traditional conception of eating disorders as a woman’s illness. In recent years, data point to the increasing number of men and boys presenting with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and related food and body image disorders. In fact, research suggests that male eating disorders now account for at least 10 percent of all cases. Interestingly, despite significant biological, psychological and sociological differences between men and women, the etiology of eating disorders remains fairly constant between the two genders.
Read more here.
Posted in General, Huffington Post, In the News •
Eating Recovery Center In the News: The Huffington Post
Eating Disorders and the One Thing You Need to Know About Them
Dr. Ken Weiner, Founding Partner, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer of Eating Recovery Center, now pens a bi-weekly blog about eating disorders on The Huffington Post. Topics will include the latest research, expert commentary from Dr. Weiner and his colleagues at Eating Recovery Center, and practical advice for recognizing and addressing an eating disorder. The first blog post, which addresses the severity of these illnesses and urges family, friends and healthcare professionals to take eating disorders very seriously, debuted this weekend.
There are myriad eating disorder topics to address over the coming months, and it’s nearly impossible to organize them in order of importance, because each topic in itself is critically important to understand. So for my first post, I thought I’d answer a question that I’m often asked by members of the community, and that I hope will provide some necessary context to emphasize the importance of my subsequent blog entries: What is one thing people really need to understand about eating disorders?
While there are many vital issues individuals should acknowledge about eating disorders, my answer is generally as follows: Eating disorders are the deadliest mental illness, and therefore it’s incredibly important for physicians, therapists, patients, families and friends to take these diseases very, very seriously.
Despite rising eating disorder awareness among the general population and healthcare professionals alike, the illnesses aren’t known for their severity or for the high mortality rate associated with them, which is higher than any other mental illness, including depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. It’s the most lethal eating disorder, with 0.5 percent of patients dying every year and a mortality rate of 20 percent within 20 years, meaning that one in five people that have had anorexia for two decades will die as a result of the illness.
Even for patients whose eating disorders don’t prove fatal, there are often severe medical complications associated with starvation and purging. In addition to the generally debilitating psychological implications of an eating disorder, the disease will eventually take a toll on a person’s physical health, resulting in bone disease, cardiac complications, gastrointestinal distress and various other organ problems.
Click here to read Dr. Weiner’s blog post in its entirety.
Posted in Anorexia Nervosa, General, Huffington Post, In the News •
