Diabetics Risk Life to Stay Thin | Christianpost.com
Millions of girls are estimated to be suffering from eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia. Another dangerous trend to stay thin, however, has gained wide attention and a new term – diabulimia.
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Experts: Eating Disorders on the Rise among Young Girls
"Diabulimia" is not a recognized medical condition, but it's a term that has cropped up recently labeling those with diabetes who skip their insulin to lose weight.
Ann Goebel-Fabbri, a clinical psychologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, estimates that 450,000 type 1 diabetic women (juvenile diabetes) in the United States have skipped or shortchanged their insulin to shed pounds, according to The Associated Press. That constitutes one third of the total female population who have type 1 diabetes in the states.
Remuda Programs for Eating Disorders, a biblically-based eating disorder treatment center, cites a recent study that reveals the death rate of a person who has both diabetes and an eating disorder and who hasn't received treatment is nearly 35 percent.
Manipulating insulin disorders can cause severe diabetic complications and can be lethal. When type 1 diabetics skip or reduce their insulin, they risk falling into a coma. Blindness, amputations and kidney failure are some of the long-term complications that can develop. A diabetic woman may accelerate medical damage to five or seven years as opposed to the typical 30 years such complications are expected.
"We're seeing far too many adolescents use insulin manipulation as a form of weight control," said Brenda Woods, MD, medical director at Remuda Programs for Eating Disorders, in a statement. "While most young women with bulimia purge through vomiting or excessive exercise, a diabetic purges by under-dosing insulin, which causes sugar to be eliminated from her body via urine."
In no way do I want to minimize the pain of people with type 1 diabetes. But I find it fascinating that insulin makes you gain weight. So obese people get type 2 diabetes, and then they give you insulin, which makes you even fatter. Before insulin, people with type 1 diabetes would basically starve to death. Without insulin, the body can't store calories as fat.
Millions of girls are estimated to be suffering from eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia. Another dangerous trend to stay thin, however, has gained wide attention and a new term – diabulimia.
Related
Experts: Eating Disorders on the Rise among Young Girls
"Diabulimia" is not a recognized medical condition, but it's a term that has cropped up recently labeling those with diabetes who skip their insulin to lose weight.
Ann Goebel-Fabbri, a clinical psychologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, estimates that 450,000 type 1 diabetic women (juvenile diabetes) in the United States have skipped or shortchanged their insulin to shed pounds, according to The Associated Press. That constitutes one third of the total female population who have type 1 diabetes in the states.
Remuda Programs for Eating Disorders, a biblically-based eating disorder treatment center, cites a recent study that reveals the death rate of a person who has both diabetes and an eating disorder and who hasn't received treatment is nearly 35 percent.
Manipulating insulin disorders can cause severe diabetic complications and can be lethal. When type 1 diabetics skip or reduce their insulin, they risk falling into a coma. Blindness, amputations and kidney failure are some of the long-term complications that can develop. A diabetic woman may accelerate medical damage to five or seven years as opposed to the typical 30 years such complications are expected.
"We're seeing far too many adolescents use insulin manipulation as a form of weight control," said Brenda Woods, MD, medical director at Remuda Programs for Eating Disorders, in a statement. "While most young women with bulimia purge through vomiting or excessive exercise, a diabetic purges by under-dosing insulin, which causes sugar to be eliminated from her body via urine."
In no way do I want to minimize the pain of people with type 1 diabetes. But I find it fascinating that insulin makes you gain weight. So obese people get type 2 diabetes, and then they give you insulin, which makes you even fatter. Before insulin, people with type 1 diabetes would basically starve to death. Without insulin, the body can't store calories as fat.
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