Health Diaries > The Anorexia Blog
February 6, 2007
Doctors Often Overlook Eating Disorders in Patients
Experts in the UK say doctors - especially male doctors - frequently miss eating disorders in patients.
... just 17 per cent of the 600 youngsters questioned felt they could talk to a GP or nurse, 1 per cent felt they could talk to their parents, but 92 per cent said there was really nobody to turn to ... One sufferer told researchers that their doctor said they were just going through "a phase".
Eating disorders misunderstood by doctors
January 23, 2007
Expert Says Families Don't Cause Anorexia
Speaking out about Gisele Bundchen's claim that weak families are the cause of anorexia, a Canadian expert who is researching the genes that cause the disease says:
"An uninformed opinion such as Bundchen's causes harm on a number of levels. By contributing to the stigma, it drives sufferers underground and creates obstacles to seeking help. It damages attempts at advocacy and hurts parents who are desperately fighting for their child's recovery ... Such thinking also misinforms third party payors who may not want to pay for the treatment of these biologically-based illnesses if they think its primary cause is family dysfunction."
Research indicates that societal pressure may be a trigger in people who are genetically predisposed to the illness.
What do you think? Is anorexia due to weak families as Gisele Bundchen claims or are other factors such as genetics and societal pressure to blame?
January 21, 2007
Gisele Bundchen Blames Anorexia on Families
In recent months, four Brazilian women have died of anorexia. Lots of finger-pointing and media discussion of the disease have ensued.
Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen's opinion is that unsupportive families are to blame for anorexia and that the fashion industry is not to blame for models' susceptibility to the disease.
"I never suffered this problem because I had a very strong family base," Bundchen was quoted as saying in Friday's edition of O Globo newspaper. "The parents are responsible, not fashion."
