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Tuesday, 07 July 2009
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Show is helping lovely Jade beat anorexia
STUNNING Britain's Next Top Model host Lisa Snowdon has given her full support to anorexic wannabe Jade McSorley.
Bosses at Living TV have been criticised for allowing recovering anorexic Jade, 21, to take part in the model contest.
Beauty ... Jade
But brunette Lisa, 38, insisted being on the show is actually helping Jade - who has made the final three.
Lisa also revealed she was once told she looked "too healthy" by fashion gurus in trendy Milan.
Speaking for the first time about the Jade controversy, Lisa told TV Biz: "We're showing Jade beautiful images of herself and she's starting to love herself.
"It's not like the modelling industry has had this effect on her. She came into it with this eating disorder and she's got some purpose and self-worth now.
"She can see that she is gorgeous and that she does want to be in this industry. A lot of clients have said to us, 'We love her look but she needs to put on a tiny bit of weight'.
"She knows that now and she's working on it. She's feeling empowered. She's seeing she's a beautiful girl and can do herself some favours by putting on weight."
Finalist ... Mecia
Lisa - who has graced the pages of fashion bibles Vogue and Elle - admits clients have asked her to shed pounds in the past, which is why she feels so protective over Jade.
Lisa said: "Jade comes across as quite vulnerable but she's very brave and very striking.
"She's definitely going to be OK and the show has given her some kind of purpose. She knows she's amazing now.
"Rather than looking in the mirror and feeling unhappy, she can see these images and she can see how amazing she is.
"And because she wants to do it so badly she will put on weight."
Underweight
Lisa insisted TV bosses acted responsibly when they decided to let Jade compete.
She said: "Production checked her and made sure everything was OK.
Hopeful ... Sophie
"The girls get thoroughly tested. That's crucial. Obviously she's underweight, but I was reassured by everyone that it's OK for her to be in the competition.
"There are people around her all the time making sure that she's eating so there was never any fear.
"I was a little bit concerned but not overly.
"I think she's going to do really well in the industry and I'm really glad we've been able to help her."
Lisa told how she quit Milan when she first started modelling over the pressure to be skinny.
She remembered: "Unfortunately when I started out modelling it was the early 1990s and it was all about grunge and heroin chic and Kate Moss.
"I was told I was too healthy looking but what was I going to do? Draw some dark circles on? And I've got boobs! How was I supposed to hide them?
"It was suggested I go on a diet but I had always been skinny and I was actually really happy that I had more of a womanly figure."
Instead of dieting, Lisa left Milan and went for other castings. She said: "I wouldn't have fitted the clothes. They would have had to strap my boobs down. I was lucky because I was 19 and I knew what I was - and wasn't - prepared to do. I was lucky."
//Retrieve Blue Lithium & Bull frog Cookie Value var blueLithium = "No"; blueLithium = get_cookie("BL")==null?"No":get_cookie("BL"); var RStag = ""; try{ RStag = segQS; } catch(e){ RStag = ""; } document.write(' <\/script>'); Now Lisa worries about denting the hopefuls' self-esteem as a judge on Britain's Next Top Model. The final is on Monday, when Jade will fight it out with Mecia Simone Simpson, 18, and Sophie Sumner, 18, for the prize of a top modelling contract.Lisa said: "It's about empowering these girls and giving them strength and knowledge. It's not about battering them down - it's about making them feel good. These girls are very young and at an impressionable age. We don't want to shatter them."
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
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"Tweens" Starving for Perfection
(CBS) A recent study found that 81 percent of 10-year-old girls are afraid of becoming fat, and that many feel better about themselves when they're on a diet.
Anorexia is affecting pre-teens more than ever, CBS News correspondent Terrell Brown reported on "The Early Show" Tuesday. And the battle to overcome the eating disorder for "tweens" can be devastating, Brown says.
Ten-year-old Shae Walker was an accomplished gymnast, practicing up to 16 hours a day. But when she decided to quit and focus on her studies and social life, Shae said, she began to have bad thoughts about her weight.
"Probably a month after quitting," Shae's mother, Michele Walker, said, "she would look in the mirror and make comments to me saying she was fat."
Michele told her daughter that was ridiculous.
But Shae began to believe she was getting fat.
"I would pinch the fat on my stomach or what was probably skin," she said. "When I looked in the mirror, it looked to me that I was getting fatter or I was fat. ... I was seeing every imperfection that I had. ... I got a feeling like I wasn't good enough anymore."
Shae refused to eat anything but salad. She exercised compulsively and wore baggy clothes to hide her shrinking frame from family and friends. In just three months, Brown reported, she dropped from a healthy weight of 85 pounds to just 68.
Michele was so desperate, she took a photo to show Shea just how thin she'd gotten.
"It was like I was seeing somebody totally different," Shae said, "because that, compared to the person I saw in the mirror, were way different."
At just 10 years old, Shae was anorexic.
"I felt like, I had almost two personalities," Shae said. "The one that wanted to get better and the one that didn't."
Michele said her daughter mentioned she wanted to die, so it would all just end.
Brown said the situation soon became one of life-and-death. The Walkers checked Shae into an eating disorders clinic, where she was attached to a feeding tube. And there, Shae confronted her fears.
Shae told Brown her eating disorder became almost a person-like figure in her life. At the Remuda Ranch clinic, she gave it the name Ed, short for eating disorder.
After months of therapy, Shae overcame anorexia, and the negative thoughts began to fade. Now 13, Shae has a different view of life.
"I feel confident now," she said. "I can accept myself, no matter how I look."
But many children are experiencing the same things, according to Elizabeth Shaw, executive editor of Parenting magazine.
Shaw told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez teaching your kids to eat well and giving them a positive self-image early-on is a start to keeping your kids healthy.
She added that, in some cases, family history of anxiety, depression perfectionism and compulsive disorders may contribute to anorexia.
"When you take this predisposition, combine it with dieting, the calorie restriction and the excessive behaviors can really quickly morph into a disorder," she said.
Rodriguez pointed to role models for children.
"I remember when I was a teenager," Rodriguez said, it was bad enough. Now it's even worse."
Shaw agreed.
"(Children are) bombarded and one of the scary things is that some of that anti-obesity message kids are getting in schools sometimes can backfire," she said. "Very healthy kids can become very paranoid about eating fattening foods."
Shaw also suggested parents look for warning signs from their children, such as disruptions in their normal personality like withdrawn, anxious or depressed behaviors.
Shaw added secretive behavior, such as disappearing after a meal to take a shower, are also red flags. Some children use this ruse, she said, to mask their purging.
Shaw said parents should also be watching if their children cut out major food groups or exercise excessively.
If parents notice behaviors like these, Shaw said, parents can start by having the child's doctor talk about the importance of eating from all the food groups, but if it's more serious, she suggested the child may need to be hospitalized.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/30/earlyshow/health/main5124454.shtml
Monday, 29 June 2009
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Fat Like Me
Part 1
Part 2 -
Michael Jackson's death spotlights eating disorders
The untimely death of musical icon Michael Jackson spotlights eating disorders in general, and for men in particular. Whether Michael Jackson suffered from anorexia, which some call “manorexia” in men, is up to debate. What is not up for debate is whether Jackson had the classic symptoms of the disease.
Anorexia can be a lifelong affliction once it hits. Many people who have developed and then overcome the condition find themselves returning to the mindset and eating habits months or even years later. The Mayo Clinic’s eating disorders page has an excellent list of symptoms of the most common eating disorders.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has an online BMI calculator. A BMI less than 18.5 is considered underweight. A normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. Those with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 are considered overweight. A BMI greater than 30 indicates obesity.
An article published by England’s Times Online in 2005 said that rumors of Jackson’s weight were as low as 6.5 stone, which translates to a mere 91 lbs on his 5 foot 11 inch frame. That would translate to a body mass index of only 12.7, which is severely underweight. Dr. Thomas Stuttaford, who wrote the article, said that those with a BMI under 17 “are in need of medical help.”
Dr. Stuttaford also said that abnormal heart rhythms like Jackson’s can be “indicative of a slow transmission of the impulse that triggers the contraction of the chambers of the heart.” He pointed out that “social isolation and withdrawal are features of both anorexia and depression.” Jackson was famous for both those characteristics.
Jackson’s arrest record in 2003 with the Santa Barbara (CA) Sheriff’s Department said his weight was 120 pounds. That would have made his BMI only 16.7 as he entered one of the most stressful times in his life, facing allegations of child molestation. He was eventually acquitted of those charges.
The Daily Mail in England published an article today by Ian Halperin said that Jackson “became so skeletal, doctors believed he was anorexic.” Halperin was so shocked by Jackson’s appearance that he predicted “last December that Michael had six months to live.” Jackson died six months and one day after the prediction. Halperin wrote that “Jackson had lost an astonishing amount of weight in recent months. His medical team even believed he was anorexic”
Geraldo Rivera of FOX News characterized Jackson as “paranoid” and “addicted” as well as anorexic. He said that Jackson “was at times so thin as to be almost translucent.”
The National Institute of Mental Health says that “The three main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.” NIMH data suggests that only 5 to 15% of anorexics or bulimics are men. As for binge-eating disorder, men make up 35% of those afflicted.
A study done at Columbia University in New York says that “National population-based studies have found that eating disorders affect 1–3% of women and less than 0.5% of men, except for binge eating disorder which was found to affect 2% of the men” studied. That study also found that “Although anorexia and bulimia nervosa occur primarily in women, 5–20% of people with eating disorders are men.” The report also said “Studies suggest that a disproportionate number of these men are gay and bisexual.” The study concludes that “Researchers should study the causes of the high prevalence of eating disorders among gay and bisexual men.”
Although the number of women suffering from eating disorders is much higher than men, the fact remains that eating disorders affect men as well. And, regardless of gender, eating disorders can kill. The long-term deprivation of essential nutrients as well as calories in general associated with anorexia make the human body ill equipped to maintain health. The addition of narcotics and other substances in combination with failing health from an eating disorder can quickly break down anyone, even if they’re a superstar.
Sunday, 28 June 2009
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Demerol+Anorexia+Dehydration=Death
Perhaps you saw how as the attendants moved Michael Jackson, his body lay nearly flat on the stretcher, as though there were an ironing board underneath the sheet, rather than the body of a full person.
My guess from just a glance, is that he weighed around 100 pounds or less. Not slender, not thin, rather… entirely skeletal.
Most people are familiar with anorexia nervosa, an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive, sometimes nearly psychotic longing to lose weight. This condition is accompanied by what is called dysmorphia, meaning there is a disconnect with reality about what a person’s body actually looks like.
No matter how thin, how sharp the shoulderblades become, even in women the cessation of menstruation, in men the loss of libido, does not cause the sufferer to realize they are in a life-threateningly crisis–not just underweight– but in the exact starvation mode that occurs naturally in persons who are dying;
In an actual end of life process, the person with a terminal illness most often begins to refuse food, then water… this signals the kidneys and other absolutely essential parts of the body to close down, with eventual cessation of the heartbeat.
However, there is another kind of anorexia in addition to an emotional disorder and a natural process of dying… and it is a side effect of opiate and opiate like medications that cause a loss of appetite in some. The person in this situation, too, has to ‘remember’ or be reminded to eat… they do not feel as you and I do, hunger in a regular pattern… and oftimes, not thirst either.
One hazard of Demerol (developed in the 1930s) is dependency, meaning greater and greater tolerance to the drug, thereby seemingly needing higher and higher doses in order to mediate whatever kind of pain the person is trying to palliate.
The major hazard of Demerol is that, like other opiates, it cannot be given without higher than usual risk to persons who are debilitated… and when given by injection, needs to be administered into a large muscle.
Looking at Jackson’s seeming emaciated body on the stretcher would make one wonder where there was a large muscle left to him.
In some patients who have poor circulatory systems, thin or deeply hidden veins, or veins that have collapsed from previous injections, great care has to be taken about ‘where’ to inject that will not harm the major systems of the body…
Often a venous site can be found between toes, in lower leg, or sometimes under the tongue. If an I.V. porting system is brought into play, it is not a casual intervention. Great care is required to flush properly so air is not introduced into the body. There ought be a gate that inhibits blocking of the tubing, and rigorous hygiene of the exit site so infection is not introduced to body cavity and thereby to the major organs, including a heart infection.
In debilitated, run-down persons who are not decently nourished or hydrated, Demerol can cause sudden convulsion, respiratory depression–meaning the person cannot get enough oxygen quickly enough to avoid going into further respiratory distress. Respiratory arrest (breathing stops altogether), shock, and cardiac arrest can follow.
Dehydration from just normal night perspiration in a person who is frail, or from vigorous workouts in a person who is underweight, without being replenished in a timely way with adequate water… causes loss of critical electrolytes in the body, amongst other ill effects… ending in heart arrhythmia.
In those undernourished or ill, loss of electrolytes –minute amounts of ionized/ ionizable constituents of a living cell/blood that help to regulate body systems, (such as potassium, for instance) can weaken the body systems and cause the heart to stop entirely.
Opiate dependency and/or wrongfully administered opiate-like drug
+Extremely run-down health
+Underweight
+Dehydration
+Unqualified or careless physician oversight
+No intervention by those close in=Deadly Outcome
http://themoderatevoice.com/37011/demerolanorexiadehydrationdeath/
AnaInTheNews
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- Name: AnaInTheNews
- Member Since: 9/12/2006
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This blog is pretty much for me to post news articles i come across that are eating disorder related or might be of interest to those with eating disorders.
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hmm... the United Arab Emirates liked me today (according to my footprints)
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yes i timestamped the MJ post... but i posted it late last night and thought others might like to see it...
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guess not... post i submitted to lovelyish originally was selected by editors but now its not even on the vote page...
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