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Study: Eating disorders affect males
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OXFORD, Ohio – Eating disorders are almost never expected or looked for in males, but a new study released by the American Journal of Psychiatry is helping to understand and increase the awareness of male eating disorders.
Socially, eating disorders are mostly associated with females, leaving less understanding and fewer options for men dealing with an eating disorder.
The lead doctor and author of the study, D. Blake Woodside of Toronto Hospital, explained that after studying 62 men and 212 women known to have eating disorders, many similarities were found except when it came to seeking treatment.
Jeanette Buller, a nurse at Miami University Health Center for 20 years, said that at Miami, male eating disorders are far less frequent compared to the large number of female eating disorders reported, but the possibly detrimental results are equally threatening.
“I have only seen five male eating disorders in my 20 years at Miami, but in both male and female cases, the health suffers,” said Buller.
Buller also agreed with the study that men and women had many of the same issues causing the eating disorders, but the extremely lower rate of afflicted men seems to be because there is not as much attention and social pressure on men as there is on women.
“Eating disorders in men seem to be more personalized compared to a greater socialized effect on women,” explained Buller.
The men who have reported to Miami’s health center for eating disorders did not come in on their own will; they were persuaded by friends and family, but all had much faster recovery times, according to Buller.
Junior Grant Crosswaithe said it is obvious when an eating disorder begins to affect a man, explaining how he watched a friend from high school drastically shed more than 100 pounds in one summer by compulsive twice-a-day workouts and a small portion, no-carbohydrate diet.
“He gained some weight freshman year in college and by the end of the summer after freshman year, he was obsessed with exercise and had drastically lost weight,” Crosswaithe said.
He also explained that men with eating disorders all seem to use dietary supplements, like GMC’s Xenedrine, which are referred to as fuel burners, promising to burn fat three times as fast while simultaneously helping build muscle.
J.C. Tibbits, a junior at Miami, also agreed that a problem is signaled when habitual use of fuel burners, and compulsive exercise become common.</P><P>
“You can tell when a guy becomes preoccupied with taking fat burning powders and pills,” Tibbits said.
“Unhealthy weight loss and exercise in men is still almost always overlooked,” Crosswaithe said.
“People don’t look for an eating disorder in guys. It is thought to be a girl problem, so there is a lot more room for weight fluctuation in guys without everyone thinking ‘eating disorder.’”
Woodside believes that because eating disorders are socialized as a female problem, many men with eating disorders and those around them are much less likely to recognize the disease and its potentially fatal effects.