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Emergency room visits for eating disorders among 12- to 17-year-old girls doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – a troubling existing trend that was likely worsened by the stress of living through the prolonged crisis. In 2020, kids actually made fewer visits to emergency departments than the year before – a decline of 21%, the CDC report found. In 2021, there was a decrease of 8% compared to 2019. But the reason for those visits changed dramatically during the early months of the pandemic, with the proportion of...

Instagram is still plagued with disturbing eating disorder images that appear to violate the photo app’s rules — months after parent company Meta claimed it was cracking down. Despite a rash of bad press and Congressional scrutiny around the app’s toxic effects on teens, recent searches on Instagram have revealed accounts with names like “theprettiestareskinniest” and “be_skinnyb—ch” that feature images of emaciated bodies and which appear to encourage eating disorders, an investigation by The Post reveals.

“Why haven’t we been told this information?” A coach at a clinic asked me this near the end of a presentation I gave about my eating disorder, where I told my recovery story and offered strategies for what coaches can do to support their athletes. Disordered eating stories amongst runners seem to have been shared mostly through murmurs between coaches and private conversations between athletes who were feeling alone and struggling in silence. As a cross-country coach for Grandville High School in Michigan—four years assistant, two years head coach—I’ve noticed that eating disorders in sport is not a regular or...

The day before ultrarunner and obstacle course racing superstar Amelia Boone hit “publish” on the blog post that echoed through the endurance-sports world and beyond last week, she almost didn’t go through with it. “I was like, why am I doing this? I’m not recovered,” she told Runner’s World afterward. Even after her message went live, she spent some time second-guessing her motivations. But ultimately, Boone said, the predominant emotion she felt now that her 20-year experience with anorexia has become public knowledge is relief. “It’s honestly like having a hundred-pound weight vest lifted off,” she said. Now, she no...

A young woman has eaten her way through more than 13,000 jacket potatoes - because she has a phobia of almost all foods. Claire Jones, 23, has panic attacks and is physically sick at the thought of eating proper meals.

A short article in a medical journal about two German patients who mysteriously lost significant amounts of weight is spurring a diet craze. But more worrisome to doctors who work with people with eating disorders is that the cause of the mysterious weight loss -- chewing large amounts of gum containing sorbitol -- is attracting attention among eating disorder patients to prompt bouts of diarrhea. The article was published Saturday in the British Medical Journal in a section usually reserved for unusual cases. It was written by gastroenterologists at Berlin's Charite hospital about two patients with perplexing cases of diarrhea...

The number of patients needing hospital treatment for eating disorders has soared, it has emerged. The findings are sure to renew concerns about the effect "size zero" models and celebrities are having on the body image of many youngsters.

LONDON (AFP) - British film star Keira Knightley made no apologies for her slender figure at the European premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" in her hometown London. ADVERTISEMENT The 21-year-old A-lister wore a revealing gold Gucci dress slashed to the waist that had some onlookers wondering if she was bowing to Hollywood pressure to be super-skinny. "Whatever people say about my weight they are all wrong," she told reporters on her way into the premiere, which was also attended by her fellow "Pirates" stars Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. "Hollywood is all about the way you...

One of the most widely used treatments for the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, the antidepressant Prozac, works no better than dummy pills in preventing recurrence in young women who have recovered from it, researchers are reporting today. The study, the most rigorous to date to test the use of medication for anorexia, should alter treatment for an illness that is often devastatingly chronic and that has a higher mortality than any other psychiatric disorder, experts said. Fewer than a third of the study's participants, who also received regular psychotherapy, remained healthy for a year or more, whether they received drug...

Last Friday, Michael Moore made a last, desperate attempt to interfere in the Canadian federal election, by writing a letter to Canadians. The Large Hairy One didn't exactly call his letter "Stephen and Me" - like he did with his carve job of former General Motors boss Roger Smith (who actually deserved all he got). But the celebrity American lefty clearly showed his distaste for the Conservatives. Although, he admitted the Liberals he was shilling for "have some explaining to do." Obviously Moore was aware of the cheap and nasty campaign to which pathetic Paul Martin had stooped in the...

Tinseltown teen queen Lindsay Lohan has finally 'fessed up to doing drugs — and becoming so bulimic that she couldn't stand the sight of her own skeletal figure. In an explosive new magazine interview, the freckled "Freaky Friday" star blames her train-wreck teen years on an emotionally destructive dad, killer stress from the cutthroat Hollywood biz, and her heartbreaking bust-up with hunky first-love actor Wilmer Valderrama. "I was sick ... I had people sit me down and say, 'You're going to die if you don't take care of yourself,' " the star admits in the latest issue of Vanity Fair,...

Sharon Osbourne is still battling bulimia after 35 years with the eating disorder, she revealed on Monday. Sharon, 52, told the Sun newspaper she gorges on pasta and ice cream before forcing herself to be sick. The mum-of-three has had her stomach stapled and spent £300,000 on cosmetic surgery but said even this had not cured her of the condition. She still has impulsive eating binges and makes herself sick once a week, although this is down from a staggering four times a day. She said: "Some people do drink and drugs but for me it's food, food, food. It's...

AN INCREASING number of middle-aged women are suffering from potentially life-threatening eating disorders as they strive to emulate the characters of Desperate Housewives, the cult American television series, according to a leading eating-disorder specialist. Since the show, starring petite Teri Hatcher and her equally slim co-stars, became a hit, eating disorder clinics across the UK have seen an increase in older women suffering from anorexia and bulimia. Clinics in Scotland report a fourfold increase in the number of women aged between 30 and 50 seeking treatment for anorexia. Experts have said a "Desperate Housewives syndrome" has caused a significant rise...

They call her "Ana." She is a role model to some, a goddess to others — the subject of drawings, prayers and even a creed. She tells them what to eat and mocks them when they don't lose weight. And yet, while she is a very real presence in the lives of many of her followers, she exists only in their minds. Ana is short for anorexia, and — to the alarm of experts — many who suffer from the potentially fatal eating disorder are part of an underground movement that promotes self-starvation and, in some cases, has an almost...

CHICAGO - They call her "Ana." She is a role model to some, a goddess to others — the subject of drawings, prayers and even a creed. She tells them what to eat and mocks them when they don't lose weight. And yet, while she is a very real presence in the lives of many of her followers, she exists only in their minds. Ana is short for anorexia, and — to the alarm of experts — many who suffer from the potentially fatal eating disorder are part of an underground movement that promotes self-starvation and, in some cases, has...

GLOBE EDITORIAL Terri Schiavo's affliction April 5, 2005 RIVETED BY the personal and political battles over Terri Schiavo's rights to life and death, the country is largely ignoring a chance to act on an underlying issue: eating disorders. Schiavo was an overweight kid who reportedly wept when she bought clothes, fearful of being teased about her size. After high school she lost weight, dropping from over 200 pounds to 150. When she was 26 she weighed 110 pounds. On Feb. 25, 1990, less than three months after her 26th birthday, she collapsed. Her heart stopped, depriving her brain of oxygen...

Weight loss set Terri on road to tragedy How a loving wife and devoted daughter ended up at the centre of a bitter family feud March 23, 2005 By most accounts, Terri Schiavo, whose plight triggered an unprecedented mobilisation of the White House and Congress, would not have approved the fuss over her plight. The debate over whether to cut off the life-sustaining feeding tube of the Florida woman, who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, also placed Schiavo at the centre of a bitter legal battle between her parents and her husband. That has now...

'Cheers' star Kirstie Alley has been attacked by members of the world's leading eating disorders group for joking about 'life threatening diseases' like bulimia on her new comedy show 'Fat Actress.'Officials at the National Eating Disorder Center are furious with the actress for trivializing eating disorders during the debut of her new program.In one scene, co-star Kelly Preston tells Alley's character that making herself sick after every meal is one way of losing weight- a practice commonly used by bulimics.NEDA CEO Lyn Grefe says, 'My guess is that Kirstie Alley's concept for the show was born from her frustrations with...

Imagine a 20-year-old woman who refuses to eat anything except carrots and toast because she is afraid of gaining weight, even though she is 5-foot-8 and weighs only 99 pounds. She exercises to the point of exhaustion five mornings a week because, though she is bone-thin, she thinks her thighs are too flabby. Her periods are irregular, but she has never gone more than three months without menstruating. Another woman, who is also 20 and also 5-foot-8, has an opposite eating pattern. She goes without eating all day, and starting at 6 p.m. she eats nonstop, whatever she can get...

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 14 (UPI) -- Just being unhappy with their bodies is not enough to lead most women into eating disorders -- it takes additional factors, U.S. researchers have found. Ohio State University researchers said women are more likely to have eating disorders when their body dissatisfaction is accompanied by other issues, such as a tendency to examine their bodies obsessively and think about how they appear to others. The findings help clarify a long-running issue that has complicated the problem of identifying women at risk for eating disorders, the researchers said. Though studies have shown body dissatisfaction is...