http://trishagura.com/blog/ en Copyright 2008 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:11:30 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss New York Times Magazine article about pregnant women who are morbidly obese. It is a ghastly image: up to 600-pound mothers-to-be in unprepared maternity wards. Beyond the demand for bigger scales, extra-wide operating tables and longer surgical instruments (obese women are twice as likely as normal-weight women to require Caesarian Sections), the situation is dangerous. Newly-minted “bariatric obstetricians” are desperately try to manage the risks:]]> http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/07/getting_fatthin_and_pregnant.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/07/getting_fatthin_and_pregnant.html Our Kids and Families Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:11:30 -0500 After another weekend of carpooling my 12-year daughter to soccer, I came across a timely study on the theme of athletes and menstruation. There’s been an alarming trend in teenage female athletes: As many as 25 percent of our daughters who participate in athletics stop menstruating -- compared with 2 to 5 percent in the general population. http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/06/why_did_i_lose_my_periods_ask.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/06/why_did_i_lose_my_periods_ask.html Science Stuff ammenorrhea anorexia athlete eating disorders ghrelin hormone leptin luteinizing hormone menstruation period reproduction Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:42:40 -0500 Anyone who’s tried dieting has been lambasted with the concept of “willpower.” It’s a voice in your head that barks, “don’t eat this and that or you’ll get fat.” In the case of eating disorders, willpower also translates to willing yourself not to binge or purge or restrict. That may sound like the right approach to healing. But if you think about willpower this way, healing is submitting to a punitive, parental force that tells you “don’t” when some other child-like part of you says "do." Maybe not such a good healing tactic. http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/05/a_brain_teaser_the_will_to_rec.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/05/a_brain_teaser_the_will_to_rec.html Recovery and Healing anorexia binge bulimia decision-making eating disorder willpower Mon, 19 May 2008 10:03:37 -0500 osteichthyes, no bigger than a bloated paper clip. But some goby fish see slimming down as survival. ]]> http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/05/couples_with_an_eating_disorde.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/05/couples_with_an_eating_disorde.html Our Kids and Families Fri, 09 May 2008 08:58:41 -0500 Godiva, melting on their tongue, undeniably engenders an uncontrollable craving for more. But is this craving an addiction? And, by the way, what’s the difference between craving and addiction anyway?]]> http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/04/a_chocoholic_not.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/04/a_chocoholic_not.html Science Stuff addiction binge bulimia chocolate drugs eating disorder Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:45:33 -0500 Boston Globe ran an article about diabulimia, a practice in which individuals with diabetes skip or underdose their insulin in a misguided attempt to stay thin. The article cited in the work of psychologist Ann Goebel-Fabbri, at the Joslin Diabetes center in Boston. She published a shocking study last year showing that diabulimia tripled the risk of death from diabetes or its complications. Those who restricted their insulin died on average 13 years younger -- at 45, compared to 58.]]> http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/04/a_diabolic_reckoning.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/04/a_diabolic_reckoning.html Science Stuff anorexia diabetes diabulimia eating disorder insulin weight weight loss Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:19:21 -0500 a study published this month in Pediatrics, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer’s group at the University of Minnesota reported that adolescents who regularly skip breakfast end up heavier than their counterparts, who spoon their cereal and nibble their toast regularly. Because the skippers tended to be trying to --or thinking about trying to -- lose weight, the authors concluded that breakfast-skipping may be a misguided attempt at weight loss. ]]> http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/03/raisin_bran_and_disordered_eat.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/03/raisin_bran_and_disordered_eat.html Our Kids and Families anorexia binge eating disorder breakfast bulimia diet eating disorder obesity obesity prevention teen weight loss Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:04:51 -0500 There’s long been a consensus that what you eat influences how you sleep. But can how you sleep dictate how you eat? The answer is yes. At least at the extreme. http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/03/to_sleep_perchance_to_binge.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/03/to_sleep_perchance_to_binge.html Science Stuff Ambien binge binge eating eating disorder narcolepsy sleep weight loss Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:28:01 -0500 As the spring holidays fast approach, we begin to think again about eating as a family. There’s growing evidence that family meals play an important role in the health and well being of adolescent girls, not to mention in blunting eating disorders. But there may be a troubling fly in this family-style soup. http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/03/putting_family_relationships_o.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/03/putting_family_relationships_o.html Our Kids and Families anorexia body image bulimia diet pills disordered eating eating disorder family meals smoking weight Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:52:55 -0500 previous blog. It's when you eat food, chew it and then spit it out without swallowing. The idea is to lose weight because you are not consuming the calories. While many commentators have since posted and emailed me personally about how the practice is devastating their lives (there's issues of dentures, ulcers, lost hair and huge grocery bills), there are others who say they think C & S is a safer form of bulimia. I'd love to hear more comments on the issue. Leave them on this post or, better yet, on the train of posts in the original blog. There's not much out there on this topic. Let's find out together...]]> http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/02/chewing_and_spitting_is_it_saf.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/02/chewing_and_spitting_is_it_saf.html Eating Disorders Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:30:19 -0500 They do it because they’re desperate. People are engaging in secret, shameful behaviors all for the sake of getting or staying thin. Shortly after giving birth, Lauren, 35, would tell her husband that she was going to the grocery store late at night. There, she would buy bags of junk food, gorge in her car, and then make herself throw up in the parking lot. Her goal was to reach her pre-pregnancy weight. At all costs. The “cost” to Lauren was her relationship with her new baby, which she says she lost during the two years that her bulimia raged untreated. "How tragic,” we say. But her story just scratches the surface. http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/01/six_body_sculpting_secrets_you.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/01/six_body_sculpting_secrets_you.html Eating Disorders Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:14:21 -0500 New Year’s Day, the first of the weight loss advertisements arrived: a press release for a new diet plan. Then came a flood of emailed anti-fat strategies; coupons for local health clubs; Google ads flashing “Lose 30 pounds in Weeks – No Diet.” And I haven’t even turned on the TV yet, where commercials for elliptical trainers, diet pills, and low-carb shake schemes will hold me hostage until I press the remote. Forget weight loss and body sculpting. My New Year’s resolution is to learn how to eat normally. I’m not sure what exactly that is. Along with everyone else, I’ve been so indoctrinated with dieting and exercise tips, I’ve lost sight of health. But I'm not to be deterred. http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/01/finding_normal.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2008/01/finding_normal.html Recovery and Healing anorexia body image diet eating disorder healing normal eating obesity overeat recovery weight weight loss Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:11:33 -0500 They don’t do it -- because they’ve had enough. Some women in midlife are not coloring their hair, dieting religiously, and struggling to achieve unrealistic standards of physical beauty. While the statistics continue to startle us -- $8.2 billion worth of beauty products sold in 2006, a $55.4 billion annual weight loss industry, and 2.7 million women aged 51-64 who underwent cosmetic surgery in 2005 -- there appears to be a subset within this demographic that is letting go of measuring self-worth based on appearances. Could it be that there’s a backlash against all the nipping, tucking and Photoshopping to create impossible beauty ideals? http://trishagura.com/blog/2007/11/im_ok_theyre_nuts.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2007/11/im_ok_theyre_nuts.html Eating Disorders Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:51:38 -0500 Anna Rexia," a chance for the everywoman to dress like a “slut” with an eating disorder. The designers are stuffing a busty babe into a skeleton costume. Now that’s about as ironic as resurrecting the Bionic Woman, super strong but the size of a sapling. (And a gothic to boot). I’m guessing this is about the ultimate fantasy, having it both ways, semi-starved and strong, skeletal and busty. To wit, Miss “Anna Rexia” is available in a plus size, offering curvier women the chance to dress-up as our current runway model ideal. ]]> http://trishagura.com/blog/2007/10/skeletons_bionics_and_sickness.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2007/10/skeletons_bionics_and_sickness.html Eating Disorders anna rexia anorexia bionic eating disorder skeleton Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:36:06 -0500 Kate Moss. Not heroin addict chic, heroin chic as promoted by Calvin Klein in the 90’s. No, thin, as in a concentration camp survivor thin. She’s in newspapers, on billboards, on TV, and all over the Internet. See for yourself. Warning: this isn't pretty. It’s anorexia nervosa, stark and real. ]]> http://trishagura.com/blog/2007/09/anorexic_chic.html http://trishagura.com/blog/2007/09/anorexic_chic.html Eating Disorders Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:20:02 -0500