In the week that former deputy prime minister John Prescott goes public about his struggles with bulimia, the BMJ publishes a frank first person account of what it is like to live with an eating disorder when you're male.
People who are successful anorexics die. I did not want to turn into one of the 20% of people with anorexia who die, writes David Samuel, a final year medical student at Cardiff University.
One in ten people with anorexia are male. Statements such as I need to go on a diet and Does my bum look big in this are no longer exclusive to women, but are typical of what you hear in the men ™s changing room of the local gym, writes Samuel.
He describes how during his four year battle with anorexia the hatred of his own body took over, and the constant fear of gaining weight turned his life into a mere existence dominated by exercise, calorie counting and work.
It was only his psychiatry attachment to the local hospital ™s clinic for eating disorders that made him admit that he had a problem. I entered a room full of human mirrors of my bony form. I felt the pain they were suffering ”the pain I was suffering, he says.
Admitting I had a mental illness was the hardest part, claims Samuel. My bubbly personality was gone, and my relationships with members of my family were shattered through their anguish at seeing me starve.
Weekly sessions in counselling and cognitive behaviour therapy and continuing his medical studies helped him to overcome the illness.
He hopes to qualify as a doctor in 10 weeks ™ time. One thing is certain, he concludes, the experience of anorexia has made me appreciate the torment that patients endure when they have a serious illness.
Contact:David Gwynfor Samuel, Cardiff University, Wales, UKEmail: welshsledgehotmailTel: +44 (0) 1685 375 178 (home) +44(0) 7890 696 291 (mobile)
bma
Forty-nine persons with slightly elevated cholesterol and normal blood pressure were recruited for the study. Those chosen for the double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study began the American Heart Association ™s Eating Plan for Healthy Americans (formerly the Step 1 diet) two weeks before the study started; then they were divided into two matched groups. Two types of CocoaVia bars were then introduced, one with plant sterols and one without.
While remaining on the AHA diet, participants ate one CocoaVia formulation twice daily for four weeks, then switched to the other bar for an additional four weeks. Blood cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body weight, and other cardiovascular measures were tracked throughout the eight-week study.
After the participants started the AHA diet, a lot of them began to lose weight, so we had to keep fussing at them to eat more. We didn ™t want a weight change because that also lowers cholesterol, said Ellen Evans, a U. of I. professor of kinesiology and community health and co-author of the study.
After starting the CocoaVia bars, we saw a marked differential effect on blood cholesterol, with the sterol-containing products doing better than those without sterols, she said.
A CocoaVia bar contains 100 calories.
uiuc/