1 Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness – higher even than depression. This is both from suicide and from medical complications associated with the illness. One of these can be heart attack after a patient’s body mass becomes very low due to lack of nutrition, and the body’s muscles, including the heart muscles, start to eat themselves. This naturally puts a strain on the heart. In addition, when a person makes themselves sick frequently, they lose much of the body’s potassium, which can trigger a heart arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), again raising their risk of a heart attack.
2 Both men and women can develop eating disorders, which include anorexia, bulimia and binge eating – although around 90 per cent are women. On the plus side, we do know that women are better at seeking treatment than men.
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September 2016
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