Nut 11

Caite McGrath
Mini Term Paper

Approximately one percent of adolescent women between the ages of ten and twenty are diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. However, it is suspected that there is many undiagnosed cases of individuals with anorexia purely because of ignorance or lack of understanding. 5 Medically, anorexia nervosa can be defined as an eating disorder that makes people lose more weight than is considered healthy for their age and height. People with this disease generally have an intense fear of gaining weight, despite how underweight they may be. 5 There are many risks factors brought upon by the malnutrition aspect of anorexia, such as hypotension (low blood pressure), low heart rate, fainting, fatigue, overall weakness, dry skin, hair loss, low body temperature, reduction in bone density, loss of muscle, and severe dehydration. 5 It is widely understood how anorexia can effect one's own body, but a topic under research currently is how the disease can affect pregnancy and the child. In a review article, connections between an obstetric complications and anorexia have been processed in attempts to convert correlations to causations. Observed problems can include pregnancy complications: maternal anemia, diabetes mellitus and placental infraction, delivery complications: preclampsia (high blood pressure that can lead to seizures), wrapping of the umbilical cord around the neck, and cephalhaematoma (a hemmorage of blood between the skull and the outer membrane of fibrous connective tissues) of a newborn baby), and postpartum: premature birth weight, neonatal cardia problems, hypothermia (low body temperature), tremors, hyperactivity, and the demand for oxygen. 1 The original research articles look specifically into how ...

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...avioral effects, physically impairs their brain and reduces their neurological abilities. Mothers are also stressed out about their appearance postpartum and allow that to impair on their happiness they should feel as being a new mother. On the other hand, there are limitations to studying eating disorders. First, there is a very small sample size. Eating disorders are more common than diagnosed, and this leaves the sample size subjective to people who can admit they have a problem and potentially seek for help. Likewise, the questionnaires are subject to bias. Future research should be done on the later term emotional effects of eaten disorders on children between the ages of ten to twenty, when eaton disorders are at their peak. It would give researchers more inside on how environment and genetics play together to warp a child in the pressures of modern society.