Binge Eating Disorder Linked To 44 Health Conditions In Recent Study
Binge-eating disorder may not be as well known as other disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, but it’s actually the most common eating disorder in the United States. Unfortunately, a new study has suggested that it's also linked to a broad range of other illnesses affecting both our mental and physical health.
Individuals with BED had a 2.5 times greater risk of also having an endocrine disorder and a 1.9 times increased risk of a circulatory system disorder. Obese people with BED had a 1.5 times increased risk of having a respiratory disease and a 2.6 times increased risk of having a gastrointestinal disease than those who were not obese.
"We encourage clinicians to 'have the conversation' about BED with their patients. Accurate screening and detection can bring BED out of the shadows and get people the treatment they deserve," said senior study author Dr. Cynthia Bulik, as reported by Medical Xpress.
According to the National Eating Disorder Association, BED is an eating disorder that is characterized by recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food. This binge eating is often done quickly and to the point of extreme discomfort. In addition, binge eaters may experience feelings of loss of control during the binge, and shame, distress or guilt afterwards. Unlike bulimia, they may not regularly use unhealthy compensatory measures (e.g., purging) to counter the binge eating.
For the report, the team used health information of 9.350 people who were 95 percent female. The average age at the time the information was taken was 29. The diagnoses were given by specially trained clinicians. Based on this data, the team found the following conditions to be linked to BED:
Neurologic diseases:
Headaches, migraine, epilepsy, sleep apnea
Infectious and parasitic diseases:
Colitis, gastroenteritis, viral infection, genital warts
Immune system disorders:
Sarcoidosis, hyperimmunglobulin E (IgE)-syndrome
Respiratory diseases:
Tonsillitis, acute respiratory infection, asthma
Gastrointestinal disorders:
Gallstones, appendicitis, dyspepsia, gastritis
Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders:
Dermatitis, hives, eczema, psoriasis
Musculoskeletal system and connective tissues diseases:
Lumbago (low back pain), joint pain, internal derangement of knee
Genitourinary system disease:
Kidney inflammation, kidney stone, kidney infection, urinary tract infection, ureter stone
Circulatory system diseases:
Hypertension, tachycardia, pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrhythmia
Endocrine system diseases:
Polycystic ovarian syndrome, hyperthyroidism, thyrotoxicosis, autoimmune thyroiditis
Congenital malformations:
Congenital non-neoplastic nevus, congenital malformation of the breast, prominent ear, congenital heart defect
Injury, poisoning, and external causes of morbidity and mortality (excluding suicide):
Fall-related accidents, concussion, sprain of ankle
Source: Thornton LM, Watson HJ, Jangmo A, et al. Binge-eating disorder in the Swedish national registers: Somatic comorbidity. International Journal of Eating Disorders . 2016
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