If you binge eat, you may eat large amounts of food in a short period of time (perhaps not at a normal mealtime) and feel a lack of control during these binges, but unlike someone with bulimia nervosa, you do not try to get rid of the food. You may feel your eating is out of control, eat what you think of as an unusually large amount of food, eat much more quickly in these binges, eat until you are uncomfortably full, eat large amounts of food when you are not hungry or eat alone. You do this for very similar reasons to someone with bulimia. a study reported that eating disorders are increasing fairly rapidly in women over 50. In fact, over 13% of the over-50 population surveyed had some symptoms of an eating disorder. About 64% of the women said they thought about their weight once a day or more, and 62% said that their body image negatively affects their lives. About 7.8% of the women purged, and others used diet pills (7.5%) or exercised excessively/compulsively (7%), which is a form of anorexia that’s only been discussed recently.

Millions of British women have eating binges, lie about how much they weigh and have a negative relationship with food, according to a survey. The study of 2,000 women also found that eating in secret is commonplace, with many refusing to tell family and friends the truth about how much they consume. Researchers said boredom, stress and feeling depressed were the biggest triggers causing women to eat more.

Anyone can help?

Deep brain stimulation reduces binge eating in mice, suggesting that this surgery, which is approved for treatment of certain neurologic and psychiatric disorders, may also be an effective therapy for obesity. Presentation of the results took place June 25 at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.Available treatments of obesity may inadequately address the neural basis of this compulsive overeating behavior, he suggested. A region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens is known to be dysregulated in both rodents and people who binge eat. Therefore, Halpern and his co-workers targeted that brain region with deep brain stimulation in a strain of obesity-prone mice.

What about acupuncture?

Acupuncture has a history of effectively addressing the above symptoms, easing the distress of recovery until the body functions effectively by itself. According to Chinese medical theory, all of these complaints result from damage done to the organs and meridians of digestion. Treatment is aimed at restoring proper energetic flow and function. Through this rebalancing, acupuncture addresses symptoms such as abdominal bloating, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, and reflux. Acupuncture treats both acute and chronic complaints, and rebalancing the body’s energy can help prevent future dysfunction.

Australian Victoria University scientists have done a new research to examines the role of acupuncture as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of eating disorders in female patients.

Finally, they found evidence that acupuncture improved the participants' Quality of Life as measured by the physical/cognitive and psychological components of the Eating Disorder Quality of Life scale. There was also evidence of decreases in anxiety (both State and Trait as measured by the State Trait Anxiety Intervention) and perfectionism (as measured by the Eating Disorder Inventory-3).They conclude that pilot study shows potential of the benefit of acupuncture as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of eating disorders particularly in the area of quality of life.

Crown Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Reference:Fogarty S, Harris D, Zaslawski C, McAinch AJ, Stojanovska L.Complement Ther Med. 2010 Dec;18(6):233-40.