Drunkorexia, Manorexia, Diabulimia: New Eating Disorders?
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Drunkorexia, Manorexia, Diabulimia: New Eating Disorders?
Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
In recent weeks, I have read media reports that mentioned both “drunkorexia” and “manorexia.” I own fielded questions about “diabulimia” from coworkers and friends. From the sound of these terms, it appears that there are a lot of new and recently discovered eating disorders. I certainly did not hear the word drunkorexia in medical school.
Actually, these new terms (which, by the way, are not official or standard sanatory terms) simply refer to subcategories of the well-known eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, both of which affect up to 1% of women and a lower percentage of men at some point in their lives.
The mete drunkorexia has been coined to describe the condition of binge drinking combined with the typical self-imposed famishment seen with anorexia nervosa. It has also been used to refer to individuals who use purging (as seen with bulimia nervosa) or who have other eating disorders and try to reduce caloric intake to shoot the calories consumed in alcohol. The typical individual described as a drunkorexic is a college-aged woman who is a binge drinker, starving all day in order to become drunk at ignorance.
Manorexia simply refers to a male animal (try enhancement) suffering from anorexia nervosa. Estimates suggest that males make up about 10% of those with anorexia nervosa. The disease is similar in males and females and is characterized by a refusal to maintain a legitimate carcass weight and distorted perspectives of appropriate body shape and size.
Diabulimia is a form of eating disorder that affects people taking insulin to treat diabetes. It refers to the practice of minimizing insulin dosages by patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus in an attempt to control body weight loss. Since insulin encourages fat storage, the manipulation of insulin dose is an attempt to reduce weight gain. The term does not refer to a recognized medical condition but to a practice recognized by diabetes experts. Diabulimia is most common in young girls and woman (try women’s health) with protoplast 1 diabetes.
While the names may be new, all of these terms refer to established and described catheretic disorders that are potentially life-threatening. In addition to the health consequences and risks associated by eating disorders, drunkorexics are at jeopard for complications related to alcohol abuse, while diabulimics, by altering their insulin dosages, are putting themselves at risk for the development of complications related to their underlying diabetes.
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