Braving the Binge
It is 2 AM. The apartment is still. Empty jars of peanut butter, quarts of ice cream, and entire boxes of granola bars. Gone. Hundreds to thousands of calories consumed in just minutes. A food spread of shame. Of procrastination. Of emptiness. Of I don’t know what. Fast forward to the next day. On the outside, you see a petite girl whose joyous, whose positive, whose present. On the inside: severe stomach pains, body aches, chest discomfort. And those are just the physical effects. I am drained. I am disgusted. I am trapped. Cycles of isolation feeding isolation. Literally.
Who am I? I am an artist, a city girl, an almo...
Source: World of Psychology - January 4, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Madeleine Rachel Tags: Anorexia Binge Eating Bulimia Eating Disorders New Year's Personal Self-Esteem Bingeing Body Image Low Self Esteem self-compassion self-worth Source Type: blogs
Vitamin D: What ’s the “right” level?
Many of my patients who come into the office for their physical exams ask to have their vitamin D levels checked. They may have a family member with osteoporosis, or perhaps they have had bone thinning themselves. Mostly, they want to know that they’re doing everything they can to keep their bones strong. Vitamin D is critical for healthy bones. But when we check that blood level, how to act on the result is the subject of great controversy in medical-research land.
Pinpointing a “healthy” vitamin D level is tricky
So, what is the current cutoff value at which people are considered “low,” and thus at risk for dev...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - December 19, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs
Sarcopenia Finally Obtains an ICD Code
A recent commentary celebrates the granting of an International Classification of Disease (ICD) code to sarcopenia, an important step in the lengthy formal definition of a disease. Sarcopenia is the characteristic age-related decline of muscle mass and strength - though many would say that it only counts as sarcopenia if that decline is significantly greater than normal, and that "normal aging" should not be treated. Hopefully those voices will decline in the years ahead. The carving up of degenerative aging into named conditions is a long, slow, and messy process. It is driven by regulation rather than any sort of common ...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 30, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Letter to My Borderline Brain
Dear Borderline brain,
I know you want to go to the hospital. I know. But you are okay, you are not in crisis, and you do NOT need to be there. There will be times that you do. You remember the boy who cried wolf? This is important. Are you listening to me? It’s nice to have people take care of you, but please remember that people ARE taking care of you. Your therapist and your psychiatrist and your nutritionist and your outpatient program leader are always on your team. They are not going anywhere.
You remember what it felt like before. You remember when the air felt so heavy that you couldn’t stand under the weight o...
Source: World of Psychology - November 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Liz Briggs Tags: Borderline Personality Eating Disorders Inspiration & Hope Motivation and Inspiration Self-Esteem Anorexia Body Image Borderline Personality Disorder bpd Cutting Nightmares Self Care Self Harm suicidal gestures Source Type: blogs
Snapping Self-compassion in Selfies
If you like to take selfies, this great TEDx Talk from psychologist Stephanie Zerwas is about online body image in selfies.
She discusses the negative emotions that selfies can generate, and how to approach them.
Zerwas is a clinical psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders.
She is social media savvy and has a popular Twitter account, where she posts occasional selfies along with great info on eating disorders.
(Source: Channel N)
Source: Channel N - November 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: sandra at psychcentral.com (Sandra Kiume) Tags: All General Lecture anorexia body image brain bulimia dysmorphia eating disorders eds online psychology selfcompassion selfies social media video Source Type: blogs
Snapping Self-compassion in Selfies
If you like to take selfies, this great TEDx Talk from psychologist Stephanie Zerwas is about online body image in selfies.
She discusses the negative emotions that selfies can generate, and how to approach them.
Zerwas is a clinical psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders.
She is social media savvy and has a popular Twitter account, where she posts occasional selfies along with great info on eating disorders.
Photo by Susan von Struensee (Source: Channel N)
Source: Channel N - November 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: sandra at psychcentral.com (Sandra Kiume) Sandra Kiume Tags: All General Lecture anorexia body image brain bulimia dysmorphia eating disorders eds online psychology selfcompassion selfies social media video Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 54-year-old woman is evaluated for fatigue, anorexia, polyuria, and nocturia
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 54-year-old woman is evaluated for fatigue, anorexia, polyuria, and nocturia of several weeks’ duration. She had otherwise felt well until the onset of her current symptoms. Medical history is significant for autoimmune pancreatitis diagnosed 1 year ago, treated with a prednisone taper that was completed 8 months ago with resolution of her symptoms. She takes no medications.
On physical examination, temperature is 36.2 °C (97.2 °F), blood pressure is 110/58 mm Hg, pulse rate is 72/min, and respiration ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 30, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Nephrology Source Type: blogs
A Bulimia Device
When I was doing research for my book, I ran across a report of a weight loss device that seemed absurd at the time — the AspireAssist. At that time, the inventor of the Segway was applying for approval for a device he calls AspireAssist which is medical device with a tube which is surgically implanted in the stomach and is attached to a skin-port which is equipped with a valve which is attached to a battery operated pump which sucks a portion of your stomach contents out of your gut and mechanically vomits them into your toilet. About 30% of what has been eaten is removed. In short it is medically induced bulimia. In ...
Source: Jung At Heart - June 19, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs
Lightning review: access to child and adolescent mental health services, May 2016
Children's Commissioner - This review of access to mental health services highlights the long waiting lists and restricted access for those with life-threatening conditions. From a request of data from public bodies, the review found that 28 per cent of children who were referred for specialist mental health treatment in 2015 did not receive a service. A significant proportion of children with life-threatening mental health conditions - 14 per cent of the 3,000 about whom information was obtained - were denied specialist support. These included children who had attempted suicide or serious self-harm and th...
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - May 30, 2016 Category: UK Health Authors: The King's Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Mental Health Source Type: blogs
“After Alicia Machado won the 1996 Miss Universe title,...
"After Alicia Machado won the 1996 Miss Universe title, something very human happened: She gained weight. @realdonaldtrump didn't keep his critique of her body quiet. Instead, he publicly shamed her, she said. The Republican presidential candidate — who purchased the #MissUniverse Organization that year — said he had pushed Alicia to lose weight. "To that, I will plead guilty," he said, expressing no regret for his tactics. For Alicia, who was photographed by @emilyberl, the humiliation was unbearable. "After that episode, I was sick, anorexia and bulimia for 5 years," she said. Over the past 4 decades, #DonaldTrump ha...
Source: Kidney Notes - May 15, 2016 Category: Urology & Nephrology Authors: Joshua Schwimmer Source Type: blogs
My double life: Mental illness in the health care
I was 13 years old when I first had thoughts related to suicide. While my thoughts never really included calculated ways of ending my life, I remember such a profoundly overwhelming desire to be anesthetized to all of my emotions and worries. In the medical field, that kind of thinking is classified under the label of “suicidal ideation,” which is often accompanied by other diagnoses of mental illness. I have carried the diagnosis of major depressive disorder since I was 11 years old. My family noticed something was wrong well before I was actually diagnosed, and after a few years of going to therapy and not improving,...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 6, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Kristen Beatty Tags: Conditions Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Digitizing Self-Healthcare with Google, Pfizer, Under Armour, Walgreens and WebMD
How can digital technologies enable self-healthcare in novel ways? This was the theme of a meeting sponsored by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and hosted by Google, with the title, “Advancing Consumer Health through New Technology and Next Generation OTC Healthcare” held on 12th April 2016 at Google offices in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.
Pharmaceutical brand drugs switching to over-the-counter packaged goods, the Cellscope Otoscope used by parents checking their young children’s earaches, connected shoes and earbuds for athletic enhancement, and omni-channel retail shopping….these are a few of the signals we s...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - April 20, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Rx Source Type: blogs
TBT – Teen eating disorders: A personal story about the battle for control
February is Eating Disorders Awareness Month so today’s TBT post is one we posted in 2012, it is one individual’s battle with an eating disorder. Sadly the statistics show, even four years later, her battle is not unique…in the US, 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life.
A decade: that is how long I have been battling my eating disorder. I would like to say that is a long time, but according to everything I have read and what my therapist has told me I will be dealing with it the rest of my life… which I hope is long.
You hear...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - February 18, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Advocacy TBT Source Type: blogs
Digoxin toxicity (digitoxicity)
Brief Review
Digoxin toxicity has become far less common as the use of digoxin, especially that of the loading dose has come down. Still an occasional case can occur due to renal dysfunction or drug interactions. Almost any type of arrhythmia can occur in digoxin toxicity except Mobitz type II second degree AV block and atrial fibrillation with a fast ventricular rate. On the contrary, a slow ventricular rate in atrial fibrillation could be a manifestation of digitoxicity. Ventricular ectopic beats in bigeminy is one of the common arrhythmias of digoxin toxicity. The most characteristic arrhythmia of digitoxicity is bidire...
Source: Cardiophile MD - November 16, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: ECG / Electrophysiology digitoxicity digoxin antibody digoxin toxicity Fab fragments of digoxin antibody Source Type: blogs
Obesity Is Not Like Being "Addicted to Food"
Credit: Image courtesy of Aalto UniversityIs it possible to be “addicted” to food, much like an addiction to substances (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, opiates) or behaviors (gambling, shopping, Facebook)? An extensive and growing literature uses this terminology in the context of the “obesity epidemic”, and looks for the root genetic and neurobiological causes (Carlier et al., 2015; Volkow & Bailer, 2015).Fig. 1 (Meule, 2015). Number of scientific publications on food addiction (1990-2014). Web of Science search term “food addiction”. Figure 1 might lead you to believe that the term “food addiction” was inve...
Source: The Neurocritic - November 9, 2015 Category: Neuroscience Authors: The Neurocritic Source Type: blogs
