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When I hear the word anorexia, I usually think of Nicole Ritchie, Lindsey Lohan and the Olsen Twins. Every gossip rag at the supermarket’s check out counter has always some big bold letters announcing which female celebrity is seeking treatment for it. So I was quite surprised when I picked up our local newspaper last week and read about Dennis Quaid and his battle with “manorexia” – the male version of anorexia. Well, well, well…. What do we have here? It seems that the big Hollywood trend of “skin and bones” is not just limited to its female population.
So is the problem of starving to get the perfect body crossing genders? A new study conducted by the American Journal of Psychiatry has discovered that at least 1 million American men are suffering from the condition today. If you ask me, the pressure to have a slim physique like Justin Timberlake or the muscles of Brandon Routh is no different than me wanting to be as sexy as Heidi Klum. Increased doses of dietary supplements and over exercising are just some of the signs of “manorexia”. Dennis Quaid went from 180 to 138 pounds. “For many years, I was obsessed about what I was eating, how many calories it had, and how much exercise I’d have to do,” Quaid told “Best Life” Magazine. Starving to gain the ideal body has definitely crossed gender lines and the quest for perfection can come with an ugly price tag.
Anorexia is a life threatening condition that can put a serious strain on many of the body’s organs. It affects the function of the heart and cardiovascular system which has been linked to heart failure, muscle weakness, immune dysfunction, and ultimately death. Early diagnosis with intervention results in an improved outcome.
Let’s take a simple test, shall we?
Take your weight in pounds and multiply that by 705.
Divide the result by your height in inches.
Divide the result again by your height in inches
Here’s an example:
I weigh 125 pounds and I am 5’2″ (62 inches)
125 multiplied by 705 = 88,125
88,125 divided by 62 inches = 1,421
1,421 divided by 62 inches = 23
What we have just calculated is the Body Mass Index (BMI).
Healthy weight 18.5 to 24.9 BMI
Overweight 25.0 to 29.9 BMI
Obese I 30.0 to 34.9 BMI
Obese II 40 BMI
At a BMI of 23, I am considered in healthy weight. I can drop down to an 18.5 BMI, which is roughly 102 lbs, and I can still maintain a healthy weight for my height based on the current BMI Standards. Since the refusal to maintain healthy body weight of at least 85 percent of the expected weight is a tell-tale sign of anorexia, I better hope that a friend out there starts an intervention right away if I start weighing in at less than 100lbs.
copyright 2007 The Bikini Body Diet
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My BMI is approximately 17 according to those calculations. I confess that I am very scared of gaining weight, but I do not do anything to keep myself underweight. I know that I have to work harder than many, because eating disorders have been very common in my family.
We really put too much emphasis on remaining slim. Blood chemistry, heart health, and other measures are more important.
SageMother’s last blog post..Doing it at Home
What I don’t like is when it comes to eating disorders they are not looked at as a medical problem which in turn means that people cannot always afford to get help because their insurance will not cover them. I would agree that more men are now developing eating disorders but it will probably take years for society to address this as a whole.
[...] The Diva Network wrote an interesting post today on Anorexia and The Obsessive Fear Of Gaining WeightHere’s a quick excerpt [IMG Good Times Entertainment] Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric condition – 10% of those diagnosed die due to related factors. This eating disorder primarily affects women, especially adolescent girls, struggling with the pressure of today’s society to be thin. The obsessive fear of gaining weight, combined with body image distortion is a deadly lethal mix. It drives individuals to try to control their body weight by voluntary starvation, binge-eating, pur [...]
The saddest case I know of an eating disorder is about to cost a lady her life. Not a young girl, either…
What a lot of people don’t realize is that if they’ve done heavy damage, the organs can start closing down *after* they are in recovery like the case I know. That’s quite a blow when someone thinks they’ve finally licked the disorder only to start watching their organs close down one by one.
Jewel, I think it’s okay to drop below a point or two.
I really think I need to take a picture of you and post it on my fridge…..
SageMother, having a healthy mind and a healthy lifestyle really does go a long way to living longer without health complications.
You are right. There are other things much more important than being supermodel slim.
Katharina, I’ve heard of cases similar to that.
My background primarily has been entertainment and I see people idolize what the media portrays. Sometimes emulating that is harder than it first seems.
And dying is not worth it.