Bulimia can permanently damage your stomach and intestines, causing other problems like constipation, diarrhea, and irritable bowel syndrome. Hormonal problems. Reproductive issues, including irregular periods, missed periods, and fertility problems are common side effects when you have bulimia.
Negative self-esteem and problems with relationships and social functioning. Dehydration, which can lead to major medical problems, such as kidney failure. Heart problems, such as an irregular heartbeat or heart failure. Severe tooth decay and gum disease.
Other effects can include cavities, gum disease, intestinal problems, hair loss, dry skin, sleep problems, stroke, and organ failure. Due to this intense damage to the body, people with bulimia are at risk of death if they do not seek treatment.
Over time, bulimia can affect your body in the following ways: Stomach damage from overeating. Electrolyte imbalance (having levels of sodium, potassium, or other minerals that are too high or too low, which can lead to heart attack or heart failure) Ulcers and other damage to your throat from vomiting.
Over time, bulimia can cause a person to experience very serious symptoms, such as severe dehydration, organ damage, stroke, and heart attack. Some of these symptoms can be life-threatening or cause permanent damage to the body.
Close to 70% of people with bulimia are recovered within nine years. [2] For many, early wins in recovery help spur them to keep working. Often, those early wins involve physical complications. You're less likely to return to harmful methods when you notice your body changing and healing.
With appropriate treatment, those struggling with bulimia nervosa will be able to reverse most of the physical symptoms and lead a normal, healthy life. Unfortunately, dental issues including tooth decay, breakage and discoloring may not be reversible and may require medical intervention.
If an individual has swelling in their salivary glands it will disappear after a few weeks if the individual continues to not engage in self-induced vomiting. However, if the individual begins to self-induce vomiting again, the swelling will reappear if they stop engaging in self-induced vomiting.
Can Bulimia Cause Liver Problems? Behaviors associated with bulimia, primarily purging, laxative abuse, and binging, can damage the liver. Here are two main ways that these behaviors can negatively impact the liver: Laxative jaundice: When someone continually uses laxatives, their body becomes less sensitive to them.
Developmental factors associated with bulimia nervosa
Divorce, the loss of parents, emotional, physical, mental, sexual and verbal abuse, bullying and neglect are all strongly linked with the development of a mental health disorder or low-self-esteem resulting in harmful eating disorders such as bulimia.
Examining the cumulative age of onset curves, rates of anorexia nervosa plateaued near age 26, bulimia nervosa near age 47, and binge eating disorder after age 70.
Depending on several factors, it may take several months or even a few years to find recovery from bulimia. The repetitive and harmful behaviors associated with bulimia must be replaced with healthier coping mechanisms, which takes time and dedication to a new way of thinking and reacting to stressful situations.
Erosion can drastically change the color, size and shape of your teeth. Excessive tooth erosion is one way your dentist could tell if a patient may be bulimic. Frequent vomiting can lead to sensitive teeth, dry mouth and red, cracked lips. All signs that your dentist is trained to recognize as side effects of bulimia.
FACT: Research has shown that vomiting cannot get rid of all the calories ingested, even when done immediately after eating. A vomit can only remove up to about half of the calories eaten - which means that, realistically, between half to two thirds of what is eaten is absorbed by the body.
Recovering from bulimia nervosa has no set time frame, and it is rarely a linear process. Instead, your recovery should be viewed as an ongoing cycle where you may pass through certain stages multiple times or revisit certain stages for different bulimia nervosa symptoms.
Neurological Effects on the Brain Caused by Bulimia Nervosa
Eating disorders can have a variety of effects on the brain as well. Repeated binge eating episodes can alter the way the brain releases and distributes serotonin, not to mention the various deficiencies in brain function resulting from prolonged malnutrition.
Vomiting leads to low blood potassium levels which can cause fatigue, weakness and abnormal heart beats or heart arrest. This complication is unpredictable and occurs without warning, even in people who have previously vomited without developing problems. If you do vomit, drink some juice to help reduce this risk.
One of the primary issues that occurs in those with bulimia are both upper and lower gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. Digestive problems bulimia causes may include acid reflux, stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, rectal prolapse (hemorrhoids), and Mallory-Weiss tears.
The bingeing and purging cycle isn't even an effective way to lose weight. Indeed, many people with bulimia actually gain weight over time. Your body starts absorbing calories from the moment you put food in your mouth.
To compensate for overeating, they may purge, like vomiting or using laxatives. To be classified as bulimia by a doctor, someone must binge eat and purge — or use other ways to prevent or control their weight — once a week for at least 3 months.
Bulimia knuckles" develop due to the repeated contact of the teeth on the back of the hand or knuckles when fingers are used to trigger a gag reflex. ( 3) British psychiatrist Gerald Russell first recognized this sign as a common indicator among his eating disorder patients, hence the name.
If left untreated, bulimia can result in long-term health problems such as abnormal heart rhythms, bleeding from the esophagus due to excessive reflux of stomach acid, dental problems, and kidney problems.
Going cold turkey to stop your eating disorder will not work, even if some doctors and therapists have told you it will.
Research Results. These researchers looked at almost 1,900 individuals who came over the course of two decades, to the University of Minnesota's Outpatient Eating Disorders Clinic. They turned up almost equal mortality rates in anorexia (4%) and bulimia (3.9) but a significantly higher rate for ED-NOS (5.2%).