Young people are under more pressure than ever to look a certain way, or have a certain body shape.
The perfect look it seems is all about being thin, or at least, not being remotely “curvy” if you’re a girl or the six pack imperative if you’re a boy.
It’s a fact that over 85% of those suffering with an eating disorder are girls. And it is not just teenage girls; anyone can suffer an eating disorder.
The pressure to have the right body shape is immense and in a study of students recently, 60% said they had dieted in the past year whilst only 9% had a body mass index over 25, with 20-25 being considered normal.
Anorexia and bulimia are the two main eating disorders.
The difference between the two disorders is that anorexia is where the sufferer eats very very little, and bulimia is where the sufferer eats to excess, and then makes themselves sick. Combine either with diabetes and you have a dangerous combination.
Diabetes means keeping one’s blood glucose levels within certain limits. It is usually the case that diabetes results in blood glucose levels being too high, which can cause blindness, foot amputations and kidney failure. Where the patient becomes anorexic the body is not then getting the amount of food it needs to convert to blood glucose and the problem becomes one of too low blood sugars. If the anorexia persists, the only way the body can then receive the amount of sugar it needs is by intravenous drip in hospital. At that stage it is very important that the patient is helped to overcome their anorexia.
Anorexia has an advantage over bulimia in that people become thin. As they start to literally waste away, this can play a key role in convincing them to eat again because they can see they are too thin. Bulimia often has the opposite effect in that people often put on weight. People with bulimia often take drugs such as laxatives to try and lose weight, and these drugs also cause complications for their diabetes. It is not possible to effectively treat people with bulimia for diabetes, so it is vital that professionals are employed to cure the patient of their bulimia.
Because he is diabetic himself, Toby has experienced some of the side effects of diabetes including stress. Learning to play his Ibanez acoustic electric guitar has assisted Toby relax and he would recommend learning to play an Ibanez acoustic electric guitar to anyone who suffers from this diabetic condition.
