Nutrition is Vital
Good nutrition is vital to our well being and without it we would soon slide into poor health, illness and disease. In today’s society we are experiencing, in epidemic proportions, various eating disorders. In the US alone it is estimated that there are between three and five million people who suffer from one of many eating disorders. Sadly it would appear that about 86% of sufferers are diagnosed before the age of twenty and over 10% of high-school students are affected. Even more alarming is the fact that over 90% of people suffering from eating disorders are female. It is an absolute disgrace that the most common cause of undernutrition in adolescents, in developed countries, is eating disorders, especially when we consider how little our governments are willing to spend on this growing problem.
Eating disorders such as Bulimia, (binge eating, and/or purging) are, most likely, far more common than full-blown anorexia
nervosa. However it is alarming to discover that the pathophysiology of anorexia nervosa is not really well understood by the medical establishment. Furthermore the problems are compounded by the fact that such illnesses often remain hidden, mainly because of the common stigma attached to these diseases.
Due to the fact that sufferers are not digesting their food (or are simply avoiding eating) all sufferers lack the vital nutrition required for our basic bodily functions. Without sufficient nutrition we are likely to develop a number of physical signs and symptoms which can include; amenorrhea, bradycardia, cold hands and feet, constipation, dizziness, edema. fainting, headaches, lethargy, orthostatic hypotension, etc. Furthermore without the necessary nutrients our skin begins to suffer, often becoming very dry and also our hair suffers too creating a rather poorly looking individual.
The truth is that good nutrition should be considered vital to all aspects of our life, from skin care and hair care (which benefits greatly from a well balanced diet), to more serious functions such as heart function. Of all the eating disorders anorexia nervosa is the most destructive as it virtually eliminates all intake of nutrients, protiens, carbohydrates, vitamins and all other elements of nutrition.
Anorexia nervosa is known to cause menstrual dysfunction but few people understand that it can also cause such dramatic symptoms such as cerebral atrophy, and even sudden death. Most sufferers will be afflicted with swollen joints and other consequences include; anemia, arrhythmias, cardiovascular disease, endocrinopathies, liver disease and bone loss or osteopenia (caused by the lack of estrogen and which is impossible to reverse). Sadly Prognosis is pretty poor when we
compare it to other adolescent medical illnesses, (up to six per cent of patients die within 5 years and about eight per cent by 11 years).
In complete opposite to this we also have the immense problem of childhood (and adult) obesity which is causing another set of severe symptoms ultimately leading to an early and untimely death. With all of these growing medical problems associated with diet and our relationship with food it is amazing that fast food is still being produced on a massive scale. In most cases such food is usually low in nutrition and all things good while being high is salt, fat and all things associated with poor diet. Fast food, junk food, TV dinners, whatever you want to call them may be convenient but they are often associated with easting disorders and, really, they are literally killing us.
I hope that you found this article both interesting and informative but most of all I hope that it has led you to reassess your own diet with a view to improving it.
Andrew Kelly has, over the last 10 years, been working with a number of very well known U.K. skin care companies, beauty salons and skin care web sites in the promotion of microdermabrasion and microdermabrasion products. This has led to a great interest in related health matters such as diet and nutrition.
