Anorexia Nervosa Research Paper

Anorexia Nervosa As a Life-Threatening Disorder

Anorexia Nervosa is a disease that should not be handled lightly. While in our nation, it is not as publicized as other diseases such as cancer or heart disease, it does take lives everyday due to people having a distorted self-image. Many people in the medicinal field have come to various conclusions about the cause of anorexia and it's effects on a person physiologically and psychologically. Some argue that it is strictly a socio-cultural influence that causes the onset of the disease, while others debate a biological influence. While I do not discredit any of this information, I strongly believe that it is a combination of many things that cause a person, particularly teenage girls
Along with a biological cause, there comes a socio-cultural one as well. It is nothing new that in American culture, being thin is more socially acceptable then being obese. Extreme thinness is advertised in this country everyday in various forms on a daily basis throughout one's life. A study done by Alison Field for the medical journal, Pediatrics highlights the influence of the media on girls from fifth grade to seniors. The research was based on a survey given to the girls that had questions about their body weight, problems they felt they would like to change with their bodies, how exposed they were to fashion magazines and whether or not they have ever attempted a diet due to exposure to the magazines (Field, 1999). The study found that sixty-nine percent of the girls reported that looking at females in fashion magazines had some kind of impact on the way they felt about their bodies and prompted them to want to change (Field, 1999). There was positive correlation between the frequency of reading fashion magazines and attempts to diet because of it (Field, 1999). Forty-seven percent of girls surveyed claimed that they want to lose weight because of their exposure to such images (Field,
In a women's studies class I took in high school, I learned that it actually plays a big part in why people have eating disorders. When women and girls feel as if they do not have control over an aspect of their life, there is always one thing they can control and that is what they put into their bodies. In the award winning film, Iron Jawed Angels, the women use resistance against food to try and prove a point that they will not settle for not being able to vote any longer. In a study done at the Women's Medical College in Japan, a study was done on rats dealing with anorexia and stress. For the control data, they noted the rats normal eating habits and later put them under 90 minutes of stress and recorded their food intake. It was found that after the hour and a half of stressful activity, the rat's food intake was reduced to sixty percent of what it initially was (Shibaski, 1105). This condition was reversed by administering the rats with a reversal protein called anti-CRF gamma-globulin. This gives validity to the evidence that there are chemical processes that are responsible for anorexia and stress which in turn shows that eating habits are one aspect of one's life that can be controlled no matter what is going on in their