According to Medical Daily, eating disorders influence a person's emotional and physical wellbeing. The binge and purge phases of bulimia have an effect on the digestive system and result in chemical imbalance that has an impact on the major organ functions.
The National Eating Disorder Association listed some the health consequences of bulimia:
- Tooth decay as well as staining of teeth caused by stomach acids, created while vomiting frequently.
- Peptic ulcers and pancreatitis
- Possible gastric rupture at the event of binges
- Inflammation of the esophagus due to vomiting, possible rupture of the esophagus
- Electrolyte imbalances resulting from purging which often can result into abnormal heartbeats, potential heart failure, and even mortality.
- Chronic irregular bowel movement and also constipation brought by taking excessive laxative
Kids who bully other children are twice prone to show indications of eating problems like bulimia based on a new study of the experts at Duke Medicine and UNC School of Medicine.
The researchers discovered from 1,420 students that both bullies and their victims were almost twice as possible as their peers to be prone with eating disorders.
Victims of bullying peer abuse were two times as likely to indicate hints of anorexia and bulimia whereas kids involved on both parties had the highest prevalence of anorexia (22.8 percent) compared to (5.6 percent) kids not associated with bullying. They had the highest prevalence of binge eating (4.8 percent compared to one percent of students not involved in bullying).
On a report published in Science Daily, lead author William Copeland, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and Child and Fam Mental Health at Duke University School of Medicine said:
"Maybe they're good at manipulating social situations or getting out of trouble, but in this one area it seems that's not the case at all."
Copeland also points out that by ridiculing others, the bullies become aware of their own body image issues or later they would feel sorry with their actions which would drive them to binge eating and thereafter purging or extreme exercise.
The Great Smoky Mountains Study gathered the results from an analysis of interviews among the participants aged nine to sixteen. The information is regarded as a community representation of the U.S. population yet presents pointers to how youngsters ages 9 to 16 might end up suffering from the said disorders.
The involved individuals were split into four divisions - kids who were not involved in bullying; children affected of bullying; kids who are at times the bullies and sometimes victims; and lastly, kids who are totally bullies, verbally and physically abusing other kids and has never victims themselves.
The experts were not surprised to learn that victims of peer abuse were mostly at greater danger for eating disorder.
Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., a distinguished professor of eating disorders and founding director at the UNC School of Medicine, who was also involved in this study said that these behaviors can result in a damaging impact on the extensive wellbeing of children.
The discoveries lead the experts to encourage more awareness and give more attention on eating disorder in any individual associated with bullying whether they are the aggressor, victim or either.
Bulik is saddened by the human's tendency to severely criticize about other people's characteristics which we hate mainly in ourselves.
"The bullies' own body dissatisfaction could fuel their taunting of others," said Bulik.
