Eating Disorder Statistics

Anorexia nervosa is the most deadly of ANY mental illness.

About 50% perfect of people with anorexia will die in a year.

Prolonged starvation can cause malnutrition, dangerously low blood pressure, osteoporosis, damage to the kidneys and liver, and heart failure.

Karen Carpender died of anorexia/heart failure at the age of 32. 

Since the 1950s, anorexia has been increasing by 36% percent.

About 8 million people suffer from anorexia and bulimia.

People ages 15-24 are most at risk.

Models tend to be 25% lighter than America's average weight.

Pant size 12-18 is considered a "plus size" model.

3 out of every 100 girls will develop bulimia or anorexia.

Bulimics and anorexics tend to be perfectionists, people overly-worried with doing things right, people who worry about consequences of their actions very much, and people who need control.

Recovered anorexics and bulimics were found to have an unusually high amount of seratonin.  Over excess of seratonin goes along with obsessive/anxious behaviors and reduces appetite.  

People on diets or starving themselves may be trying to reduces their intense anxieties.

Nearly 50% of patients will relapse in the first year, but studies show that if the ideal weight was reached before release from the hospital, these statistics could decline. 

Sexual abuse is not uncommon among people that are eating disordered people.

Jockies and weightlifters have highers levels of anorexia.

Starvation can shut down estrogen, which IRREVERSIBLY takes away your bone mass and also makes you stop having periods.

After 15 years of starvation, your bones can have the mass of a 70 year old women.

Some anorexics eat plenty of food but engage in strenuous exercise.

Many anorexics, as children, had high rates of anxiety.

80% of women are dissatisfied with their bodies.

Girls as young as 9 or 10 are dieting even though they are normal weights.

Depression often accompanies EDs.

Usually, as you eat, a small amount of food will start to be released into the small intestine, which releases CCK, which tells your brain that you are full.  Engaging in binge behaviors for a long amount of time makes the stomach release CCK slower, and makes the message to the brain to stop eating much weaker.