- "Eating Disorder Facts & Myths." The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard and
Pratt. Sheppard Pratt Health System, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
<http://eatingdisorder.org/eating-disorder-information/facts-and-myths/>.
Eating Disorder Facts & Myths has a very unique style, instead of just
a "normal" website informing people on information they don't quite know
about, this site lists myths about eating disorders then responds to the
myth with the real facts. The myths ranged from "Men don't get eating
disorders" to "Recovery from an eating disorder is rare." The one of most
interest to me, for it pertains to my topic, is the myth "Eating Disorders
are a lifestyle choice; someone can choose to stop having an eating
disorder" and in response the site essentially says that the statement
is very untrue because eating disorders are true mental and physical
illnesses that severely affect a person. These myths are very
helpful in my research because it lays out the facts and myths very clearly
and in a way that ultimately proves my pointment making this research
effective as well. The article was written for the same reason I'm
researching misconceptions of eating disorders in society: To educate those
around us what people are truly struggling with when they have developed
and eating disorder. Ultimately, this article
is beneficial to strengthening my project research. In addition
to it relevance, the site is also accredited because its written by a group
of doctors from a health center, which almost guarantees the facts of the
article making it very reliable. Not only is it written by reliable people,
but the site was also published in 2014 making the facts and information
current and reliable as well. However, there is no further information
about the doctors who wrote the article, so I would not be able to contact
one individually if I were to have important questions, but the site is
created by a treatment center, so I'm sure they have a hotline, but they
still may not be helpful to me.
- Greenwood, Kathryn F. "Starving for Perfection." Princeton Alumni Weekly 5 Mar.
1997: n. pag. Rpt. in How Three Students Struggled With Bulimia and
Anorexia. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 10-15. Print. This newspaper article tells
the stories of three different girls struggling with bulimia and/ or
anorexia. The first story is about a girl named Deborah and how she
developed an eating disorder during her freshman year of college. She
developed bulimia as a way to cope with the stress put on her because of
her large amount of school work. Deborah shares with the author that she
was binging and then purging up to five times a day because she could not
deal with the stress, so she used binging and purging as an outlet. One of
the other girls is Sarah who was a cross-country team member at Princeton.
Sarah became anorexic her freshmen year at Princeton as well. However,
Sarah didn't starve herself to become thinner, she starved herself as a
punishment because she felt as though she could not do anything right, even
though she was valedictorian of her class. The final girl is Alicia and as
a result of the constant pressure put onto her by the image of the ideal
Princeton student she became anorexic as well. The article concludes by
describing the recovery of each girl as well. Deborah claims that she feels
more confident and no longer lonely, however she does admit that she is
still concerned with her body image. She also states that her disorder
ruined her college experience due to the fact that it was a very dark time
for her. Sarah's case is a little different, she took ten years to fully
recover from her anorexia, but she says that she feels more confident and
powerful than ever. And finally, Alicia, she does not try to please
everyone or try to full-fill any image anymore and is eating healthily, but
she, like Deborah, admits that her body image has fully healed
either.
This article, although very helpful in viewing different
cases of eating disorders, is not from recent years. This article was
published in 1997 as part of a Princeton Alumni Weekly, so I believe that
the information is helpful, but a lot has changed since 1997 considering
that was 17 years ago. However, reasons as to why people develop eating
disorders are the same now as are the ones illustrated in the article
through the stories of the three different women. The author of this
article is Kathryn F. Greenwood is the head of an independently run
newspaper for Princeton, so this woman is familiar with the students and is
able to contact students as she did for her article, therefore this article
is credible and quite relevant. This article is relevant because it
pertains to the school atmosphere and Greenwood had the intentions of
making it known to the students, parents, and staff at Princeton to be
aware of their expectations because the school is so competitive, there
should also be room for exception and failure in order to grow. Rather than
constant pressure on young adults to be perfect because that may hurt their
experience at Princeton more than it would contribute in a positive way.
- Shaw, Gina. "Anorexia and Bulimia: Cracking the Genetic Code." WebMD. WebMD,
n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/
eating-disorders/anorexia-nervosa/features/anorexia-bulimia-genetic-code>.
The site I used for further research on the genetics of eating disorders
explains the growing knowledge of the genetics of those with eating
disorders. The site informs those viewing that eating disorders had once
been thought to be caused by parents, and indeed they are, but not in the
way we believe. Instead of eating disorders being a result of parent
behavior, it is actually a result or risk factor due to the genes that had
been passed on to the child from the parents. The genes that put people at
high risk for eating disorders are chromosomes 1 and 10. Not to say that a
there is a specified gene mutation in these chromosomes as there is with
Huntington's, but there is a mutation that causes people to be more
susceptible to eating disorders than those who do no have the mutation.
However, the mutation does not mean that the person is fated to develop an
eating disorder, but the person is at higher risk. For example, a person
without this gene mutation may be able to diet for 4 months and walk away
with their body image unaffected whereas a person with the gene mutation
may diet for 4 months and continue the dieting until it eventually turns
into an eating disorder.
This site, being reviewed by Charlotte Grayson Mathis M.D,
the editor, is both informational as it is credible. Being reviewed and
edited by a doctor who owns her own private practice is very reinsuring of
the accuracy of the information given. This site did not give a publication
date, but judging by the topic and information, I would say that this
article was probably published between 2010 and now. Genetic research of
eating disorders is a fairly new phenomenon therefore the article must be
pretty recent giving the site credibility as well. Though this site had
great information to offer, it didn't offer a large quantity of information
because there has not been a lot of research and efforts putting into
"cracking the genetic code." Regardless, the site was still successful at
conveying the idea that eating disorders are more than what most believe
and they aren't being treated right, therefore there should be more
research done to support the desire to improve and change the way people
are being treated currently.
- Insel, Thomas. "Spotlight on Eating Disorders." National Institute of Mental
Health. NIMH, 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2012/
spotlight-on-eating-disorders.shtml>. This particular part of the site
is a blog entry by the director, Thomas Insel, that shares with its
audience the mental disease that has the most fatal which is anorexia. He
goes on to describe the reasons of death due to anorexia. The causes can be
malnutrition, suicide, and collapse of the metabolism. Then Thomas Insel
went on to share the demographics of anorexia nervosa, stating that in
China anorexia nervosa is a growing concern and not only is anorexia a
concern in white american females. Insel also describes the changing in the
recovery process of anorexia nervosa and he states that one of the most
recent changes is a "parentectomy" in which the parents are removed from
the equation in order to increase the chances of the patients recovery
rate. To conclude his blog, Insel states that there are many cases of
anorexia not being treated correctly because the eating disorder is
underlying and he likens this to treating a leukemia patient with
antibiotics for a virus rather than being treated for cancer.
Thomas Insel is the director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
He was appointed this position for his groundbreaking finds on mental
illnesses and biological factors in eating disorders. Therefore, the
information provided by, and provided quite recently, is very reliable and
credible. In his blog, conveniently written during National Eating Disorder
Awareness Week, intends to illustrate to his colleagues and other people,
that the treatment for the eating disorder with the greatest mortality rate
is not being treated as though it is the mental disorder with the highest
mortality rate.
- Bidwell, Allie. "Researchers Find Genes Linked to High Risk of Eating
<http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/08/
researchers-find-genes-linked-to-high-risk-of-eating-disorders>. This
article describes the new research results on genes and their correlation
with eating disorders.The University of Iowa and University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center studied single families that contained members
who have eating disorders and those who don't. The researchers specifically
looked at their gene make-up and studied any mutation and compared it to
other members. THe result of this research was that two mutations in the
ESSRA and HDAC4 chromosomes made members of the family, and anyone, have an
85% to 90% chance of developing an eating disorders. Both of these genes
contribute to the desire for food when one does not get enough calories.
However, this type of mutation is very rare and only one person out of a
thousand would have it, but no matter, it increases people's' chances
greatly of developing an eating disorder.
This article was very informational because it gave me the
information I needed on specifics of the genetic makeup of a person with
an eating disorder, but it made sense. Other articles that I viewed on the
genes that are responsible for the development of an eating disorder were
written in specific scientific terms that I had a hard time understanding.
Thus, this article was a great place to begin my research in the genomes of
those with eating disorders. In addition, that shows that this article
probably isn't intended for scientific purposes, but rather to inform
people, who are not scientists, what it is that truly causes an eating
disorder and also to "congratulate" and accredit the universities that
discovered this gene mutation. This article was published almost exactly a
year ago, making all the information credible and fresh from when
discoveries were made. Although the author may not be a scientist it seems
as though she did her research and was really able to inform the audience
of the finding quite accurately.
- Scientopia. scicurious, 9 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
<http://scicurious.scientopia.org/2013/10/09/
of-genes-and-eating-disorders/>. This site describes the experiment that
the University of Iowa and the University of Texas underwent to prove that
genetics are infact a factor of developing an eating disorder. The
universities looked at two families and their genomes of 10 family members
affected by an eating disorder and compared them to the genomes of 10
members of the family that were not affected by an eating disorder. In the
second family they looked at the genomes of 6 family members affected by an
eating disorder and two family members that were not. In the first family,
the scientists found a missense in the ESSRA gene, which is an estrogen
receptor. After the scientists analyzed this mutation they found that it
could potentially be a dangerous mutation because this gene also play a
role in food intake and its expression increases through exercise and food.
However, in the second family, a different mutation in those that were
struggling with an eating disorder. The enzyme histone deacetylase 4, which
is involved with the ability to keep on weight, was mutated. In addition to
these findings, the HDAC4 and ESSRA have an inverse relationship. Thus, in
family one the activity of the ESSRA gene caused HDAC4 to decrease and the
opposite for the second family.
This website is a science blog, so the author of this particular blog is
anonymous, however this author has published a lot of blogs on this site.
The blogger seems very comfortable and familiar in his or her other blogs
which reassures me that this blog his credible, otherwise it wouldn't be
acceptable on a .org domain blog site. The blog was published in october of
last year, making the information fresh and most likely accurate. For this
time was when the genetic discoveries in eating disorders were made, so
writing about this new find right after the event happened adds more
credibility to the honesty of the blog. The blog is very neutral,
surprisingly. Usually, one would believe that a blog would be a very bias
place to gather information, but after briefly reading the article, there
was no bias sways, for the blog ended with neutral conclusion. The author
said more research is to be done, even though this is a very big step in
the research of eating disorders. That kind of conclusion shows that the
author didn't have one particular "side," but rather staid neutral about
the discovery. Also, the article is very clear. The vocabulary is simple
enough for any person to understand what went on during the experiment and
helped the readers understand what the genes affected were, which was quite
helpful.
- "Estrogen-related Receptor Alpha." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2 Aug. 2014. Web. 28
Oct. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Estrogen-related_receptor_alpha#Function>. Wikipedia is essentially a
site that is accessed by everyday people to gain basic understanding or
detailed knowledge of pretty much any topic. This particular wikipedia
entry is about the function of the ESRRA nuclear receptor. Essentially the
ESRRA is a site-specific transcription regulator that interacts with
estrogen. The ESRRA is the transcriptional activator that is involved in
metabolism. Without this activator, absorption and metabolic process are
negatively impacted by being impaired. Also, this gene is also involved in
tissue distribution to the heart, kidney, cerebellum, intestine, and
skeleton muscle and also the adrenal cortex tissues which can mean that
ESRRA is responsible for the development of the adrenal cortex.
This article, although for purely informational purposes, is a great
source to get the information I needed to help me understand how it is that
a mutation in this gene could contribute to the development of an eating
disorder. However, the accuracy of the information is questionable due to
the fact that wikipedia can be edited by anyone, but despite this, the
vocabulary and scientific terms were very mature which gave me a lot of
security of the accuracy of the article. In addition to this, the article
lacked any bias view due to the fact that article was essentially created
from hard facts about ESRRA.
- "Histone Deacetylase." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histone_deacetylase#Function>. This
site describes what the histone deacetylase is and its functions. Histone
deacetylase is an enzyme that wraps the histones around the DNA tightly by
removing acetyl groups on histones. This enzyme is involved with
environmental informational processing, cell growth and death, and human
diseases such as cancer. The inhibitors of this enzyme is also involved
with the mood stabilizers for neurology and psychology. Histone deacetylase
inhibitors can also change the degree of other molecules which can cause
the molecule's activity to either increase or decrease.
The author of this site is unknown, however, this site allows for
anyone to edit the site which makes the information lose some credibility.
However, after looking at some other sites, this site contained the same
information found on other more reliable site. The language was very
advanced and hard to understand, so it took a while for me to fully
understand the function of the histone deacetylase enzyme. In the end, the
site did help me understand the function of this enzyme so I could
correlate how a mutation in this enzyme may cause an eating disorder. In my
search for a site that could give me more background on HDAC4, it was
difficult to find a site that was written in more understandable terms, so
this site is not alone in that aspect.
- Cuban, Brian. "Brian Cuban’s Recovery from Body Dysmorphia, Eating Disorders and
Alcohol Abuse." Eating Disorder Hope. Eating Disorder Hope, n.d. Web. 30
Oct. 2014. <http://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/recovery/stories/
brian-cubans-battle-for-recovery>. This site is an outlet for those
suffering or recovered from an eating disorder can share their story. The
story that I read was Brian Cuban's story of his eating disorder. Brian, as
a student in elementary school, was constantly bullied by other students
and even his parents about his weight. This negative treatment followed
Brian to college where he believed that everyone thought the same as though
bullies in elementary school and his mother triggering his development of
anorexia. Brian lived off of the positive compliments he got on his weight
loss and took his disorder even further to bulimia and exercise bulimia.
Eventually, the depression and negative self esteem lead to the use of
cocaine and alcohol to try and ease the pain in addition to the exercising
and binging. Brian continued this behavior until he turned 45, when he
began his recovery. This particular story on this site shows how serious
eating disorders are and how they can lead to things that are much worse
than being "too thin." Alcoholism, drug use, and death are all very common
outcomes of eating disorders, showing their impact they can have on the
potential outcome of one's life.
The story, although very sad, is very inspiring and much more effective
due to the fact that it is written by the person who actually suffered from
the eating disorder, rather than facts, guideline, and symptoms of eating
disorders that hold no emotion. In this article, Cuban wasn't ashamed of
his problem and he used emotion, of both positive and negative, to inspire
others or to make sure others don't let food consume their life as Brian
did. However, the way the story was written led me to some confusion. Due
to Brian's body dysmorphic disorder, he always describes himself as fat,
but was he really? This would be interesting just because it would further
illustrate the huge impact body dysmorphic disorder can have on one's
behavior. As I looked into Brian Cuban further to see if he had shared any
other stories, I noticed that he has about 15 other stories on this same
site that describe each piece of his disorders and disease. For example, he
has a story on his cocaine addiction, bullies, forgiveness, etc. I even
found out that Brian Cuban is now a motivational speaker on eating
disorders. I also found out that Brian is 8 years recovered from his
addictions with his eating behaviors and drug addictions, therefore his
stories are probably quite recent, published in 2014. Therefore, his
stories are probably pretty clear in his head and how he felt before is a
stark image in his mind making his story more credible. In addition to
this, the story is purely about himself which shows no bias, however, since
he was ill, were there other people truly calling him ugly or making fun of
him when he ate? That is still ambiguous to me because I know that Brian
suffered from body dysmorphic disorder so those things may have been in his
head, but either way, it was enough Brian to develop a severe eating
disorder and addictions.
- "Body Dysmorphic Disorder." Anxiety and Depression Association of America. ADAA,
n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/
related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/body-dysmorphic-disorder-bdd>.
Body dysmorphic disorder is when a person focuses, for hours, on either a
real flaw they have or a flaw they believe they have. People with BDD often
criticize themselves for hours a day and don't believe anyone if they try
to reassure them that they look good, or even normal. Whatever flaw it is
that a person with BDD is focused on consumes their mind causing a lot of
anxiety and depression, however causes to such a disorder are unknown. Many
believe the onset factors could be biological, genetical, society,
bullying, etc. A few symptoms of someone with BDD are skin picking, looking
in the mirror excessively, avoiding the mirror, over exercising, and
comparison of one's body to another's. This disorder ca also lead to, or be
a result of OCD, social anxiety disorder, eating disorders, or depression.
A couple ways BDD can be treated are cognitive-behavioral therapy, teaching
the patient to change irrational and negative thinking patterns, and
antidepressant medication, includes serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
This site is very helpful due to its efforts to inform and educate those
unaware of this disorder. The site even provides a questionnaire that will
give you a result of whether you may or may not have BDD, thus the site is
probably trying to help people with recognizing this disorder to try and
get help or get others to recognize these symptoms and someone they may
know may have BDD, so others will be able to help. In addition, the
information given is quite reliable, for it is published through an
association at a .org domain which shows that the level of accuracy and
education of this site is quite high. Also, the information is purely black
and white therefore there is no bias sways in this particular section of
the site. However, it is a little vague at the beginning, for in a society
like modern day's society, a lot of people have a lot of things they do not
like about themselves because of pictures thrown out on the media, so the
site could've been more specific in providing a clear difference. However,
it did provide that those with BDD have severe anxiety and may even seek
surgery to fix their flaws which did clear up the difference a little bit
more for me, but that information should've been placed at the very
beginning of this article as to make it clear that BDD is a true disorder
and not just poor self-esteem.
- "Pica." Kids Health. Nemour Foundation, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
<http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/pica.html>. Up until
last year, there were only two diagnosable eating disorders, bulimia
nervosa and anorexia nervosa, now there are four, pica, binge eating
disorder, bulimia nervosa, and anorexia nervosa. Pica differs significantly
from the other disorders because it has not to with being perfect. Pica
disorder, often in children, is when one consumes and craves only nonfood
items. These items range from cigarettes to feces. This disorder is often
developed in children with mental disabilities, autism, brain injury, or
lack of nurture from their moth as an infant. Such a disorder can lead to
lead poisoning and iron-deficiency anemia.
Upon hearing about this disorder, I was unsure of the risk factors or
triggers of this specific eating disorder, so I researched a little a
further and came upon this site. This site provided me an in-depth
description of the disorder and possible not food items that may be
ingested by a person with pica and gave me several causes of the disorder.
However the causes of this disorder that appear on this site are different
than some factors that psychiatrists have told me. For example, when I
spoke with Kelli Young she told me that several of her patients that
developed pica did it as a way to act like an infant still due to some
trauma or lack of love they experienced when they were very young. This
site, published by the Nemour Foundation, holds a lot of credible
information though for the main purpose of this foundation is improve the
health of children, therefore there must have been research on this
particular eating disorder. Thus, the purpose of this article on pica is to
raise awareness that children putting nonfood objects in their mouth may be
something that parents must explore and observe a little more because it
could potentially show signs of autism or other disorders that are
developed at this age. The information provided to prove this purpose
however was focused on what pica actually is and the causes and not so much
on the result o such a disorder. If the site had emphasized the harmful
effects of this disorder than I believe the site would be a little more
productive in conveying their point because it would make parents or any
guardian realize the harmful effects of letting their children consistently
eat nonfood items.
- "NEDA Screening." NEDA Feeding Hope. NEDA, n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
<http://screening.mentalhealthscreening.org/NEDA>. The most recent
research I have done is the diagnosis of an eating disorder and what
doctors and psychiatrists deem characteristics of an eating disorder. Thus,
I went onto National Eating Disorder Association to take the screening for
an eating disorder to see the type of questions asked when diagnosing
someone. The screening begins by questioning the fear of gaining weight,
then questions how much one focuses on food, and then asks a series of
questions about eating behavior. Then the screening asks several questions
about how one feels after eaten or while eating. For example, a question
that touched on this was "After you have eaten, do you feel guilty?" The
screening then gets more specific touching on the same three areas as I
mentioned before. The screening asks a series of questions that ask the
person taking the screening to observe their eating, or binging, or
starving behavior in the last six months. Once through all of those
question, the screening questions the persons psychological being,
questioning thoughts on suicide and if the person taking the screening has
ever thought about taking their own life.
The screening, created by a group intended to help those with
eating disorders, has put together a very good screening for those at risk
of an eating disorder. The screening touches base on a lot of factors that
cause eating disorders, like control or depression. However, I think the
screening should also question history of physical abuse and sexual abuse
because most of the time those two factors are major triggers of eating
disorders. I think that if the site broadened their questions to reach a
little further than just control and the desire to be thin then the
screening would be more beneficial because a lot of people with eating
disorders suffer some sort of trauma that triggers their disorder. Also,
there should be a genetic component to the screening as well to question if
the person taking the screening has had a family member with an eating
disorder. Despite these lacking areas of the screening, the screening is
very upfront and the way you answer each question very clearly
differentiates those who may have an eating disorder and those who are not
at risk at all.
Greenwood, Kathryn F. "Starving for Perfection." Princeton Alumni Weekly 5 Mar.
1997: n. pag. Rpt. in How Three Students Struggled With Bulimia and
Anorexia. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 10-15. Print. This newspaper article tells
the stories of three different girls struggling with bulimia and/ or
anorexia. The first story is about a girl named Deborah and how she
developed an eating disorder during her freshman year of college. She
developed bulimia as a way to cope with the stress put on her because of
her large amount of school work. Deborah shares with the author that she
was binging and then purging up to five times a day because she could not
deal with the stress, so she used binging and purging as an outlet. One of
the other girls is Sarah who was a cross-country team member at Princeton.
Sarah became anorexic her freshmen year at Princeton as well. However,
Sarah didn't starve herself to become thinner, she starved herself as a
punishment because she felt as though she could not do anything right, even
though she was valedictorian of her class. The final girl is Alicia and as
a result of the constant pressure put onto her by the image of the ideal
Princeton student she became anorexic as well. The article concludes by
describing the recovery of each girl as well. Deborah claims that she feels
more confident and no longer lonely, however she does admit that she is
still concerned with her body image. She also states that her disorder
ruined her college experience due to the fact that it was a very dark time
for her. Sarah's case is a little different, she took ten years to fully
recover from her anorexia, but she says that she feels more confident and
powerful than ever. And finally, Alicia, she does not try to please
everyone or try to full-fill any image anymore and is eating healthily, but
she, like Deborah, admits that her body image has fully healed
either.
This article, although very helpful in viewing different
cases of eating disorders, is not from recent years. This article was
published in 1997 as part of a Princeton Alumni Weekly, so I believe that
the information is helpful, but a lot has changed since 1997 considering
that was 17 years ago. However, reasons as to why people develop eating
disorders are the same now as are the ones illustrated in the article
through the stories of the three different women. The author of this
article is Kathryn F. Greenwood is the head of an independently run
newspaper for Princeton, so this woman is familiar with the students and is
able to contact students as she did for her article, therefore this article
is credible and quite relevant. This article is relevant because it
pertains to the school atmosphere and Greenwood had the intentions of
making it known to the students, parents, and staff at Princeton to be
aware of their expectations because the school is so competitive, there
should also be room for exception and failure in order to grow. Rather than
constant pressure on young adults to be perfect because that may hurt their
experience at Princeton more than it would contribute in a positive way.
Shaw, Gina. "Anorexia and Bulimia: Cracking the Genetic Code." WebMD. WebMD,
n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/
eating-disorders/anorexia-nervosa/features/anorexia-bulimia-genetic-code>.
The site I used for further research on the genetics of eating disorders
explains the growing knowledge of the genetics of those with eating
disorders. The site informs those viewing that eating disorders had once
been thought to be caused by parents, and indeed they are, but not in the
way we believe. Instead of eating disorders being a result of parent
behavior, it is actually a result or risk factor due to the genes that had
been passed on to the child from the parents. The genes that put people at
high risk for eating disorders are chromosomes 1 and 10. Not to say that a
there is a specified gene mutation in these chromosomes as there is with
Huntington's, but there is a mutation that causes people to be more
susceptible to eating disorders than those who do no have the mutation.
However, the mutation does not mean that the person is fated to develop an
eating disorder, but the person is at higher risk. For example, a person
without this gene mutation may be able to diet for 4 months and walk away
with their body image unaffected whereas a person with the gene mutation
may diet for 4 months and continue the dieting until it eventually turns
into an eating disorder.
This site, being reviewed by Charlotte Grayson Mathis M.D,
the editor, is both informational as it is credible. Being reviewed and
edited by a doctor who owns her own private practice is very reinsuring of
the accuracy of the information given. This site did not give a publication
date, but judging by the topic and information, I would say that this
article was probably published between 2010 and now. Genetic research of
eating disorders is a fairly new phenomenon therefore the article must be
pretty recent giving the site credibility as well. Though this site had
great information to offer, it didn't offer a large quantity of information
because there has not been a lot of research and efforts putting into
"cracking the genetic code." Regardless, the site was still successful at
conveying the idea that eating disorders are more than what most believe
and they aren't being treated right, therefore there should be more
research done to support the desire to improve and change the way people
are being treated currently.
Insel, Thomas. "Spotlight on Eating Disorders." National Institute of Mental
Health. NIMH, 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2012/
spotlight-on-eating-disorders.shtml>. This particular part of the site
is a blog entry by the director, Thomas Insel, that shares with its
audience the mental disease that has the most fatal which is anorexia. He
goes on to describe the reasons of death due to anorexia. The causes can be
malnutrition, suicide, and collapse of the metabolism. Then Thomas Insel
went on to share the demographics of anorexia nervosa, stating that in
China anorexia nervosa is a growing concern and not only is anorexia a
concern in white american females. Insel also describes the changing in the
recovery process of anorexia nervosa and he states that one of the most
recent changes is a "parentectomy" in which the parents are removed from
the equation in order to increase the chances of the patients recovery
rate. To conclude his blog, Insel states that there are many cases of
anorexia not being treated correctly because the eating disorder is
underlying and he likens this to treating a leukemia patient with
antibiotics for a virus rather than being treated for cancer.
Thomas Insel is the director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
He was appointed this position for his groundbreaking finds on mental
illnesses and biological factors in eating disorders. Therefore, the
information provided by, and provided quite recently, is very reliable and
credible. In his blog, conveniently written during National Eating Disorder
Awareness Week, intends to illustrate to his colleagues and other people,
that the treatment for the eating disorder with the greatest mortality rate
is not being treated as though it is the mental disorder with the highest
mortality rate.
"Common Misconceptions." Atlanta Center for Eating Disorders. Atlanta Center for
Eating Disorders, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://www.eatingdisorders.cc/
common-misconceptions.html>.
This article is very similar to the Eating
Disorder Facts & Myth site. The website lists a misconception of eating
disorders then responds with the true fact. However, this site differs in
the way that it responds. The response is more statistical. For example,
for misconception number 2 says "People with eating disorders are just
going through a phase, and it's not really that serious" so the response
gives numbers to prove this misconception. The quantitative data they give
is that "more people die from eating disorders (350,000) than from breast
cancer (approximately 40,000) every year. Females aged 15–24 are 12 times
more likely to die of an eating disorder than any other cause of death."
This is an exemplum as well because this is how each misconception is
argued to be false by giving numbers to prove the point.
Due to all of the quantitative, one can probably assume this
site is for those people who believe or even say the "common
misconceptions" others around them, so this site is proving to them,
without allowing any room for argument, that their misconceptions are
indeed misconceptions. The data is a very strong point in the site, for it
shows cold, hard evidence that what the site's response is in fact the
truth. Not only their numbers, but their references are quite impressive as
well. Oddly enough, this site uses a quote from one of my other sources
(Sheppard Pratt Health System) and in addition, has a list of 5 different
resources that are all specialized in eating disorders. However, these
resources seem a little weak to me because each resource is slightly dated.
For example, one of the resources is from 2009 which was five years ago, so
this may make the information on the site a little questionable. However,
the site was published in 2014, making he site page quite modern. Also, the
site is very bias, as they are for the thesis that eating disorders are
more serious than one thinks, and this speaks loudly throughout their site.
Some misconceptions are over exaggerated or not even a misconception I've
heard, which can make the audience maybe stray from the information because
they know the authors are quite bias and biased information tends to be
shady. I'm not in any way saying that eating disorders are not serious, but
I'm stating that the bias throughout the article that eating disorders are
severely serious, which they are, is a little too strong. Perhaps, this may
be how the site is trying to really capture their audience's attention and
"open their eyes" to the truth.
"Genetics and Biology." Something Fishy Online Eating Disorder Treatment. The
Something Fishy Website, n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.something-fishy.org/isf/genetics.php>. The Something
Fishy website offers a great scientific point of view of the onset of
eating disorders. The site claims that eating disorders, whether its binge
eating disorder or anorexia, mostly have to do with a disruption in the
body's serotonin levels. Serotonin is defined on the site as a messenger
between the brain and body, a neurotransmitter, that sends emotions and
judgement. So, if a body produces high levels of serotonin, the person may
be a very anxious person, therefore starving themselves or binging can
relieve stress and is the persons' way to relieve their stress. On the
other hand, if the body produces low levels of serotonin, that person is
more apt to be depressed or suicidal and eating disorders can be a result
of coping with those feelings of depression. This site offers good
information for my project to scientifically prove my topic rather than
support with only psychological examples.
Although the overall site is for treatment of eating disorders, this
subsite is surprisingly not bias whatsoever. The entry did explain a lot
about how serotonin could be and potentially is a factor in the development
of eating disorder, but it also looked at the opposite end of topic and
discussed how eating disorders can cause disrupted levels of serotonin
rather than the other way around. The site, in addition, really covered
every eating disorder and a lot of different components of eating disorders
in the index which gave me a sense of security in the accuracy of site.
However, no specific publishers or authors were sited, doctors were
resourced to write the site entry. Also, the site is modified because the
first time it was published was in 1998, but it is being edited and
additions are be made right up until now, 2014, which is also another way
in which the site proved quite accurate in its information. Ultimately, the
site, due to the references to doctors, broad coverage of eating disorders,
and currency of information, is a very reliable source. The site takes a
very unique take on eating disorder, which I appreciate. Rather than
focusing on purely the psychological factors of the causes of eating
disorders, the site focuses on the scientific causes of eating disorders
being that the site aims to reach an educated audience. The site intends to
educate people on different causes of eating disorders to get to the
ultimate cause of an individual's eating disorder which could ultimately
help someone aid a loved one in treatment from an eating disorder.
"About Eating Disorders." The Eating Disorder Foundation. The Eating Disorder
Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.eatingdisorderfoundation.org/EatingDisorders.htm#Causes>.
The Eating Disorder Foundation describes the causes, coping methods,
treatments, and background and symptoms of eating disorders to serve as an
aid in identifying whether you or someone you know has an eating disorder.
The site begins by giving a general overview of what an eating disorder is;
a way of dealing with trauma and various emotions. Then the site digs a
little dipper and describes binge eating disorder, anorexia, and bulimia by
describing what the behavior of those who have developed one of these
disorders is. Added to the site, is also a list of facts about our culture
that correlate with body-image. For example, the site states that "A study
found that adolescent girls were more fearful of gaining weight than
getting cancer, nuclear war or losing their parents." Then the site
continued to list the symptoms and effects of each different eating
disorder. Finally, the site goes into causes and coping. The site breaks
the causes into three groups; Psychological Factors, Social Factors, and
Genetic Factors. Then, the foundation discusses how an individual can cope
with their eating disorder and provides a questionnaire for the audience to
answer, so those who read the entry on this site will understand whether or
not they have an eating disorder themselves.
I believe that this site had a lot of input on eating disorders and was
able to convey their purpose, but the site seemed as though it was aimed
purely for women. Everytime someone with an eating disorder was described,
the authors used "she" or "her" rather than "him" or "he", showing that the
site is quite bias, and even a little sexist because the authors show
empathy only to women with eating disorders and disregards the men. This
bias aspect of the article is strange though, because the article was
published in 2013, which is quite recent, and studies have shown that more
men have developed eating disorders now than in previous generations, so
why this particular site disregarded this fact is ambiguous. Since the
publishers of this site belonged to The Eating Disorder Foundation, they
are very accredited in their purpose to help individuals who know or who
have developed an eating disorder because The Eating Disorder is purposed
to do that itself whether online through a website or through their
treatment program. This site offered me interesting facts for my project
and a very easy-to-understand resource to refer back to in further
research.
Blair NAMI Intern, Hisaho. "Discovering the Biological Basis of Anorexia."
National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI, n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Top_Story/
Discovering_the_Biological_Basis_of_Anorexia.htm>.
This article of NAMI
begins by discussing what anorexia is and introducing the author's recent
research on anorexia in the form of a research paper and for additional
information, he adds a little background about the research of anorexia,
like when it started and how long its been going on. Then the authors
discusses an experiment done by German scientists in which they compare
body image in anorexic women and healthy women which proved that the
activity between the fusiform body area and the extrastriate body area is
weaker in anorexic women than in healthy women. The author also discusses
an experiment done in 2012, where healthy women and anorexic women were
asked to describe themselves compared to a friend under an MRI scanner.
That evidence concluded that anorexic women process self image much
different than healthy woman. After the brain factors, the authors goes
into discussion about genetic factors where the author state that
individuals who have a close relative who is suffering from an eating
disorder or has recovered from an eating disorder, are ten times more
likely to develop an eating disorder. And finally, the author briefly
discusses epigenetics where he continues to say that eating disorders can
be caused by a change to a gene expression without changing the DNA
sequence which can be caused by surrounding environment such as stress,
diet, etc. All of these factors discussed in Blair's subsite ultimately
support the fact that anorexia is not a lifestyle choice, but rather a
disorder in brain activity and truly a biologically based disease.
The author, Hisaho Blair, is indeed a very accredited
author. He has written many essays and short entries about things such as
early detection of eating disorders, biological basis of anorexia, and
regulating glutamate. In addition, his entry to the site is very recent being published in 2013, making his information more reliable. Due to his deep research in eating disorders, he is
quite reliable. However, his entry seems biased. He mostly focuses on
anorexia, omitting other eating disorders such bulimia, or binge eating,
which to me seems as though he doesn't deem those disorders as important as
anorexia. Every eating disorder is equally dangerous as the next, so to
focus on one just because one believes it to be more important than the
others is a very tunneled view on eating disorders. Thus, a weakness is
found in his bias, that the reader is forced to question, "If this man
believes that anorexia is the sole eating disorder we should focus the most
on, then is he truly educated about the importances of eating disorders and
treating them?" This argument also shows that Blair intended to focus on a
highly educated reader due his vocabulary and scientific experiments to
prove to further their research or support a hypothesis, or even arguing
someone's posed theory about the onset of eating disorders.
"Eating Disorder Statistics." Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Diseases. Curtis,
n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2014. <http://www.anad.org/get-information/
about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/>. The Eating
Disorders Statistics page on ANAD is a a site that is purely data about
eating disorders. The information is broken up into several categories to
organize the information. The site contains a general, a men, a student, a
women, a media, a mortality rate, and an athletic category. Since the site
is consisted of only numerical data, the site doesn't have much else to it.
However, since this site is purely statistic, it shows no bias whatsoever
due to the fact that everything is fact. The site was published in 2014,
therefore its very recent making the data reliable and updated. The data is
also reliable because many resources can be found on the site and
references to texts and such written by psychiatrists who are quite
credible in the field of psychology. The credibility of this site is
definitely a strong point when evaluating the site and in addition the site
is neither bias nor narrow focused, instead the site gives data that allows
for the viewer of the site to get a wholesome informational read to
understand a little more about eating disorders. Thus, the purpose of the
site is to help make the viewers realize that eating disorders are much
more evident in society than most believe and that we need to help those
who have developed eating disorders more than we have in the previous
years.
Meyer, Stephanie. "Down the Rabbit Hole." Caring Online.com. Caring Online, n.d.
Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://www.caringonline.com/feelings/byvictims/
mayer.htm>. This site is an open site for those suffering or who have
been treated for an eating disorder. This particular site is quite
different than recent sites I've accessed because this one contains
personal stories of what it is like to be taken over by an eating disorder.
"Down the Rabbit Hole" is about a girl named Stephanie Meyer who was
anorexic and bulimic. Her story opened with anecdote from one her purging
experiences. She described her actions and her feelings very vividly in
almost a poetic way and she also shared with the viewers why she purged and
starved herself. The reasoning behind Stephanie's starvation and purging
was a desire to have control of her life in which she felt was only
possible through controlling her food intake and unfortunately food output.
She continued to describe her obsession with food and how she ate only
thinking of purging, therefore she cut out all meets as it was easier for
her to purge carbohydrates. In her treatment description she claimed that
she truly learned that there is a difference between what she sees in the
mirror and what is actually in the mirror, exemplifying the psychological
disorder of a developed eating disorder.
The article, since it was personal to the author, did not contain any bias
views for this story is a true and quite personal story rather than a story
intended to persuade someone of an idea or belief. Rather, the article was
intended as a way for Stephanie to be open with her feelings with others
who have eating disorders or are overcoming them. This site allows eating
disorder patients to reach out to others about their feelings and
experiences that accompanied their eating disorders. That is perhaps the
same reason as to why Stephanie left her e-mail; so others could reach out
to her. The e-mail could be a great way for me to reach out to Stephanie as
well in order to get more information about her disease and possibly move
me further ahead in illustrating the reality of eating disorders to others.
Considering this article did not contain facts, the publication date is not
relevant to how effective the site is and neither is the credibility of
Stephanie. She is suffering from an eating disorder, which in my case,
gives plenty of credibility to use her story positively.
"What is Body Image?" National Eating Disorder Association. NEDA, n.d. Web. 21
Oct. 2014. <https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/what-body-image>.
This site describes what body image is, then goes a little narrower and
describes negative body image and positive body image. The site article
then closes with correlating body image and eating disorders. The site
describes body image as "how you see yourself when you look in the mirror
or when you picture yourself in your mind" which conveys the idea that body
image is purely psychological. Negative body image is "a distorted image of
your shape" and positive body image is "a true perception of your
weight."
This site article was very basic, therefore, not containing
too much specific information, but enough information to give the viewers
an understanding of what body image is and how it affects people. In that
aspect, this article is very strong because it gives enough information and
isn't too long to the point where the article is boring or difficult to
read; its basic. However, there is no place on the site that shows the
publication date of this article on the site, but the currency of this
informational site does affect the information. Body image has been the
same and will be the same throughout the generations. The group that
created this site is an accredited association for helping those with
eating disorders as well as helping inform others about eating disorders,
therefore, the information given by them is reliable and helpful. In fact,
this site entry was intended to be informational for those who are curious
about what they believe their body image is or those who need to truly
understand that what they see may not be real considering people with
eating disorders have very negative body perception.
1997: n. pag. Rpt. in How Three Students Struggled With Bulimia and
Anorexia. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 10-15. Print. This newspaper article tells
the stories of three different girls struggling with bulimia and/ or
anorexia. The first story is about a girl named Deborah and how she
developed an eating disorder during her freshman year of college. She
developed bulimia as a way to cope with the stress put on her because of
her large amount of school work. Deborah shares with the author that she
was binging and then purging up to five times a day because she could not
deal with the stress, so she used binging and purging as an outlet. One of
the other girls is Sarah who was a cross-country team member at Princeton.
Sarah became anorexic her freshmen year at Princeton as well. However,
Sarah didn't starve herself to become thinner, she starved herself as a
punishment because she felt as though she could not do anything right, even
though she was valedictorian of her class. The final girl is Alicia and as
a result of the constant pressure put onto her by the image of the ideal
Princeton student she became anorexic as well. The article concludes by
describing the recovery of each girl as well. Deborah claims that she feels
more confident and no longer lonely, however she does admit that she is
still concerned with her body image. She also states that her disorder
ruined her college experience due to the fact that it was a very dark time
for her. Sarah's case is a little different, she took ten years to fully
recover from her anorexia, but she says that she feels more confident and
powerful than ever. And finally, Alicia, she does not try to please
everyone or try to full-fill any image anymore and is eating healthily, but
she, like Deborah, admits that her body image has fully healed
either.
This article, although very helpful in viewing different
cases of eating disorders, is not from recent years. This article was
published in 1997 as part of a Princeton Alumni Weekly, so I believe that
the information is helpful, but a lot has changed since 1997 considering
that was 17 years ago. However, reasons as to why people develop eating
disorders are the same now as are the ones illustrated in the article
through the stories of the three different women. The author of this
article is Kathryn F. Greenwood is the head of an independently run
newspaper for Princeton, so this woman is familiar with the students and is
able to contact students as she did for her article, therefore this article
is credible and quite relevant. This article is relevant because it
pertains to the school atmosphere and Greenwood had the intentions of
making it known to the students, parents, and staff at Princeton to be
aware of their expectations because the school is so competitive, there
should also be room for exception and failure in order to grow. Rather than
constant pressure on young adults to be perfect because that may hurt their
experience at Princeton more than it would contribute in a positive way.
Shaw, Gina. "Anorexia and Bulimia: Cracking the Genetic Code." WebMD. WebMD,
n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. <http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/
eating-disorders/anorexia-nervosa/features/anorexia-bulimia-genetic-code>.
The site I used for further research on the genetics of eating disorders
explains the growing knowledge of the genetics of those with eating
disorders. The site informs those viewing that eating disorders had once
been thought to be caused by parents, and indeed they are, but not in the
way we believe. Instead of eating disorders being a result of parent
behavior, it is actually a result or risk factor due to the genes that had
been passed on to the child from the parents. The genes that put people at
high risk for eating disorders are chromosomes 1 and 10. Not to say that a
there is a specified gene mutation in these chromosomes as there is with
Huntington's, but there is a mutation that causes people to be more
susceptible to eating disorders than those who do no have the mutation.
However, the mutation does not mean that the person is fated to develop an
eating disorder, but the person is at higher risk. For example, a person
without this gene mutation may be able to diet for 4 months and walk away
with their body image unaffected whereas a person with the gene mutation
may diet for 4 months and continue the dieting until it eventually turns
into an eating disorder.
This site, being reviewed by Charlotte Grayson Mathis M.D,
the editor, is both informational as it is credible. Being reviewed and
edited by a doctor who owns her own private practice is very reinsuring of
the accuracy of the information given. This site did not give a publication
date, but judging by the topic and information, I would say that this
article was probably published between 2010 and now. Genetic research of
eating disorders is a fairly new phenomenon therefore the article must be
pretty recent giving the site credibility as well. Though this site had
great information to offer, it didn't offer a large quantity of information
because there has not been a lot of research and efforts putting into
"cracking the genetic code." Regardless, the site was still successful at
conveying the idea that eating disorders are more than what most believe
and they aren't being treated right, therefore there should be more
research done to support the desire to improve and change the way people
are being treated currently.
Insel, Thomas. "Spotlight on Eating Disorders." National Institute of Mental
Health. NIMH, 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2012/
spotlight-on-eating-disorders.shtml>. This particular part of the site
is a blog entry by the director, Thomas Insel, that shares with its
audience the mental disease that has the most fatal which is anorexia. He
goes on to describe the reasons of death due to anorexia. The causes can be
malnutrition, suicide, and collapse of the metabolism. Then Thomas Insel
went on to share the demographics of anorexia nervosa, stating that in
China anorexia nervosa is a growing concern and not only is anorexia a
concern in white american females. Insel also describes the changing in the
recovery process of anorexia nervosa and he states that one of the most
recent changes is a "parentectomy" in which the parents are removed from
the equation in order to increase the chances of the patients recovery
rate. To conclude his blog, Insel states that there are many cases of
anorexia not being treated correctly because the eating disorder is
underlying and he likens this to treating a leukemia patient with
antibiotics for a virus rather than being treated for cancer.
Thomas Insel is the director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
He was appointed this position for his groundbreaking finds on mental
illnesses and biological factors in eating disorders. Therefore, the
information provided by, and provided quite recently, is very reliable and
credible. In his blog, conveniently written during National Eating Disorder
Awareness Week, intends to illustrate to his colleagues and other people,
that the treatment for the eating disorder with the greatest mortality rate
is not being treated as though it is the mental disorder with the highest
mortality rate.
"Common Misconceptions." Atlanta Center for Eating Disorders. Atlanta Center for
Eating Disorders, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://www.eatingdisorders.cc/
common-misconceptions.html>.
This article is very similar to the Eating
Disorder Facts & Myth site. The website lists a misconception of eating
disorders then responds with the true fact. However, this site differs in
the way that it responds. The response is more statistical. For example,
for misconception number 2 says "People with eating disorders are just
going through a phase, and it's not really that serious" so the response
gives numbers to prove this misconception. The quantitative data they give
is that "more people die from eating disorders (350,000) than from breast
cancer (approximately 40,000) every year. Females aged 15–24 are 12 times
more likely to die of an eating disorder than any other cause of death."
This is an exemplum as well because this is how each misconception is
argued to be false by giving numbers to prove the point.
Due to all of the quantitative, one can probably assume this
site is for those people who believe or even say the "common
misconceptions" others around them, so this site is proving to them,
without allowing any room for argument, that their misconceptions are
indeed misconceptions. The data is a very strong point in the site, for it
shows cold, hard evidence that what the site's response is in fact the
truth. Not only their numbers, but their references are quite impressive as
well. Oddly enough, this site uses a quote from one of my other sources
(Sheppard Pratt Health System) and in addition, has a list of 5 different
resources that are all specialized in eating disorders. However, these
resources seem a little weak to me because each resource is slightly dated.
For example, one of the resources is from 2009 which was five years ago, so
this may make the information on the site a little questionable. However,
the site was published in 2014, making he site page quite modern. Also, the
site is very bias, as they are for the thesis that eating disorders are
more serious than one thinks, and this speaks loudly throughout their site.
Some misconceptions are over exaggerated or not even a misconception I've
heard, which can make the audience maybe stray from the information because
they know the authors are quite bias and biased information tends to be
shady. I'm not in any way saying that eating disorders are not serious, but
I'm stating that the bias throughout the article that eating disorders are
severely serious, which they are, is a little too strong. Perhaps, this may
be how the site is trying to really capture their audience's attention and
"open their eyes" to the truth.
"Genetics and Biology." Something Fishy Online Eating Disorder Treatment. The
Something Fishy Website, n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.something-fishy.org/isf/genetics.php>. The Something
Fishy website offers a great scientific point of view of the onset of
eating disorders. The site claims that eating disorders, whether its binge
eating disorder or anorexia, mostly have to do with a disruption in the
body's serotonin levels. Serotonin is defined on the site as a messenger
between the brain and body, a neurotransmitter, that sends emotions and
judgement. So, if a body produces high levels of serotonin, the person may
be a very anxious person, therefore starving themselves or binging can
relieve stress and is the persons' way to relieve their stress. On the
other hand, if the body produces low levels of serotonin, that person is
more apt to be depressed or suicidal and eating disorders can be a result
of coping with those feelings of depression. This site offers good
information for my project to scientifically prove my topic rather than
support with only psychological examples.
Although the overall site is for treatment of eating disorders, this
subsite is surprisingly not bias whatsoever. The entry did explain a lot
about how serotonin could be and potentially is a factor in the development
of eating disorder, but it also looked at the opposite end of topic and
discussed how eating disorders can cause disrupted levels of serotonin
rather than the other way around. The site, in addition, really covered
every eating disorder and a lot of different components of eating disorders
in the index which gave me a sense of security in the accuracy of site.
However, no specific publishers or authors were sited, doctors were
resourced to write the site entry. Also, the site is modified because the
first time it was published was in 1998, but it is being edited and
additions are be made right up until now, 2014, which is also another way
in which the site proved quite accurate in its information. Ultimately, the
site, due to the references to doctors, broad coverage of eating disorders,
and currency of information, is a very reliable source. The site takes a
very unique take on eating disorder, which I appreciate. Rather than
focusing on purely the psychological factors of the causes of eating
disorders, the site focuses on the scientific causes of eating disorders
being that the site aims to reach an educated audience. The site intends to
educate people on different causes of eating disorders to get to the
ultimate cause of an individual's eating disorder which could ultimately
help someone aid a loved one in treatment from an eating disorder.
"About Eating Disorders." The Eating Disorder Foundation. The Eating Disorder
Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.eatingdisorderfoundation.org/EatingDisorders.htm#Causes>.
The Eating Disorder Foundation describes the causes, coping methods,
treatments, and background and symptoms of eating disorders to serve as an
aid in identifying whether you or someone you know has an eating disorder.
The site begins by giving a general overview of what an eating disorder is;
a way of dealing with trauma and various emotions. Then the site digs a
little dipper and describes binge eating disorder, anorexia, and bulimia by
describing what the behavior of those who have developed one of these
disorders is. Added to the site, is also a list of facts about our culture
that correlate with body-image. For example, the site states that "A study
found that adolescent girls were more fearful of gaining weight than
getting cancer, nuclear war or losing their parents." Then the site
continued to list the symptoms and effects of each different eating
disorder. Finally, the site goes into causes and coping. The site breaks
the causes into three groups; Psychological Factors, Social Factors, and
Genetic Factors. Then, the foundation discusses how an individual can cope
with their eating disorder and provides a questionnaire for the audience to
answer, so those who read the entry on this site will understand whether or
not they have an eating disorder themselves.
I believe that this site had a lot of input on eating disorders and was
able to convey their purpose, but the site seemed as though it was aimed
purely for women. Everytime someone with an eating disorder was described,
the authors used "she" or "her" rather than "him" or "he", showing that the
site is quite bias, and even a little sexist because the authors show
empathy only to women with eating disorders and disregards the men. This
bias aspect of the article is strange though, because the article was
published in 2013, which is quite recent, and studies have shown that more
men have developed eating disorders now than in previous generations, so
why this particular site disregarded this fact is ambiguous. Since the
publishers of this site belonged to The Eating Disorder Foundation, they
are very accredited in their purpose to help individuals who know or who
have developed an eating disorder because The Eating Disorder is purposed
to do that itself whether online through a website or through their
treatment program. This site offered me interesting facts for my project
and a very easy-to-understand resource to refer back to in further
research.
Blair NAMI Intern, Hisaho. "Discovering the Biological Basis of Anorexia."
National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI, n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Top_Story/
Discovering_the_Biological_Basis_of_Anorexia.htm>.
This article of NAMI
begins by discussing what anorexia is and introducing the author's recent
research on anorexia in the form of a research paper and for additional
information, he adds a little background about the research of anorexia,
like when it started and how long its been going on. Then the authors
discusses an experiment done by German scientists in which they compare
body image in anorexic women and healthy women which proved that the
activity between the fusiform body area and the extrastriate body area is
weaker in anorexic women than in healthy women. The author also discusses
an experiment done in 2012, where healthy women and anorexic women were
asked to describe themselves compared to a friend under an MRI scanner.
That evidence concluded that anorexic women process self image much
different than healthy woman. After the brain factors, the authors goes
into discussion about genetic factors where the author state that
individuals who have a close relative who is suffering from an eating
disorder or has recovered from an eating disorder, are ten times more
likely to develop an eating disorder. And finally, the author briefly
discusses epigenetics where he continues to say that eating disorders can
be caused by a change to a gene expression without changing the DNA
sequence which can be caused by surrounding environment such as stress,
diet, etc. All of these factors discussed in Blair's subsite ultimately
support the fact that anorexia is not a lifestyle choice, but rather a
disorder in brain activity and truly a biologically based disease.
The author, Hisaho Blair, is indeed a very accredited
author. He has written many essays and short entries about things such as
early detection of eating disorders, biological basis of anorexia, and
regulating glutamate. In addition, his entry to the site is very recent being published in 2013, making his information more reliable. Due to his deep research in eating disorders, he is
quite reliable. However, his entry seems biased. He mostly focuses on
anorexia, omitting other eating disorders such bulimia, or binge eating,
which to me seems as though he doesn't deem those disorders as important as
anorexia. Every eating disorder is equally dangerous as the next, so to
focus on one just because one believes it to be more important than the
others is a very tunneled view on eating disorders. Thus, a weakness is
found in his bias, that the reader is forced to question, "If this man
believes that anorexia is the sole eating disorder we should focus the most
on, then is he truly educated about the importances of eating disorders and
treating them?" This argument also shows that Blair intended to focus on a
highly educated reader due his vocabulary and scientific experiments to
prove to further their research or support a hypothesis, or even arguing
someone's posed theory about the onset of eating disorders.
"Eating Disorder Statistics." Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Diseases. Curtis,
n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2014. <http://www.anad.org/get-information/
about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/>. The Eating
Disorders Statistics page on ANAD is a a site that is purely data about
eating disorders. The information is broken up into several categories to
organize the information. The site contains a general, a men, a student, a
women, a media, a mortality rate, and an athletic category. Since the site
is consisted of only numerical data, the site doesn't have much else to it.
However, since this site is purely statistic, it shows no bias whatsoever
due to the fact that everything is fact. The site was published in 2014,
therefore its very recent making the data reliable and updated. The data is
also reliable because many resources can be found on the site and
references to texts and such written by psychiatrists who are quite
credible in the field of psychology. The credibility of this site is
definitely a strong point when evaluating the site and in addition the site
is neither bias nor narrow focused, instead the site gives data that allows
for the viewer of the site to get a wholesome informational read to
understand a little more about eating disorders. Thus, the purpose of the
site is to help make the viewers realize that eating disorders are much
more evident in society than most believe and that we need to help those
who have developed eating disorders more than we have in the previous
years.
Meyer, Stephanie. "Down the Rabbit Hole." Caring Online.com. Caring Online, n.d.
Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://www.caringonline.com/feelings/byvictims/
mayer.htm>. This site is an open site for those suffering or who have
been treated for an eating disorder. This particular site is quite
different than recent sites I've accessed because this one contains
personal stories of what it is like to be taken over by an eating disorder.
"Down the Rabbit Hole" is about a girl named Stephanie Meyer who was
anorexic and bulimic. Her story opened with anecdote from one her purging
experiences. She described her actions and her feelings very vividly in
almost a poetic way and she also shared with the viewers why she purged and
starved herself. The reasoning behind Stephanie's starvation and purging
was a desire to have control of her life in which she felt was only
possible through controlling her food intake and unfortunately food output.
She continued to describe her obsession with food and how she ate only
thinking of purging, therefore she cut out all meets as it was easier for
her to purge carbohydrates. In her treatment description she claimed that
she truly learned that there is a difference between what she sees in the
mirror and what is actually in the mirror, exemplifying the psychological
disorder of a developed eating disorder.
The article, since it was personal to the author, did not contain any bias
views for this story is a true and quite personal story rather than a story
intended to persuade someone of an idea or belief. Rather, the article was
intended as a way for Stephanie to be open with her feelings with others
who have eating disorders or are overcoming them. This site allows eating
disorder patients to reach out to others about their feelings and
experiences that accompanied their eating disorders. That is perhaps the
same reason as to why Stephanie left her e-mail; so others could reach out
to her. The e-mail could be a great way for me to reach out to Stephanie as
well in order to get more information about her disease and possibly move
me further ahead in illustrating the reality of eating disorders to others.
Considering this article did not contain facts, the publication date is not
relevant to how effective the site is and neither is the credibility of
Stephanie. She is suffering from an eating disorder, which in my case,
gives plenty of credibility to use her story positively.
"What is Body Image?" National Eating Disorder Association. NEDA, n.d. Web. 21
Oct. 2014. <https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/what-body-image>.
This site describes what body image is, then goes a little narrower and
describes negative body image and positive body image. The site article
then closes with correlating body image and eating disorders. The site
describes body image as "how you see yourself when you look in the mirror
or when you picture yourself in your mind" which conveys the idea that body
image is purely psychological. Negative body image is "a distorted image of
your shape" and positive body image is "a true perception of your
weight."
This site article was very basic, therefore, not containing
too much specific information, but enough information to give the viewers
an understanding of what body image is and how it affects people. In that
aspect, this article is very strong because it gives enough information and
isn't too long to the point where the article is boring or difficult to
read; its basic. However, there is no place on the site that shows the
publication date of this article on the site, but the currency of this
informational site does affect the information. Body image has been the
same and will be the same throughout the generations. The group that
created this site is an accredited association for helping those with
eating disorders as well as helping inform others about eating disorders,
therefore, the information given by them is reliable and helpful. In fact,
this site entry was intended to be informational for those who are curious
about what they believe their body image is or those who need to truly
understand that what they see may not be real considering people with
eating disorders have very negative body perception.