Dying To Be Thin Movie Review

Q1. What are three negative complications of Anorexia Nervosa?

Answer: Anorexia Nervosa is a deadly disease. In the field of psychiatric illness, Anorexia Nervosa has highest rate of death. Three negative complications include low blood pressure, severe osteoporosis, damage to kidneys and liver and heart failure. Anorexia Nervosa also causes malnutrition.

Q2. How many American women and girls have eating disorders?

Answer: About five to seven percent of family members have eating disorders.
Q3. What are three explanations experts give for why so many women develop eating disorders?
Answer: First reason is that the entire society is playing a role in perfection game. Everyone has this concept at the back of their mind that we can fix our bodies. Especially young women are inspired by celebrities and celebrity culture is prevailing where female actors are very thin than they were in past. This is very tempting for young girls. It is indeed the concept of idealized beauty. These plus sized models have become ideals of beauty and young women look up to them.
Secondly, there can be many other reasons which lead to these disorders like parents of that female got divorced or breakup can be a reason. This disorder takes place in context of an already present vulnerability.
Third reason that experts have come up with is that people who develop disorders have some obsession and they are perfectionist. These people want to do everything perfectly right. They are risk averse people they don’t want to do anything wrong in their life. In search of that perfection, they even want themselves and their bodies to be perfect and to get this perfection they develop eating disorders.

Q4. How do the bodies of models compare with the average American woman?

Answer: The whole concept of thin models came up with the entrance of a British model named Twiggy in the 1960s. She weighed 91 pounds and had a height of five feet six inches and was top mini model in Britain. After her arrival, the fashion models have lost even more weight with their weights about 25 percent lesser than an average American women who weighs about 140 pounds.
Q5. Explain the role serotonin plays in the brain of an anorexic.
Answer: Doctors have discovered that people with anorexia have extremely high levels of serotonin which is a brain chemical. Serotonin is famous for its role in appetite and mood. Because of this high level of serotonin, the system of an anorexic patient takes less appetite. An increased serotonergic activity also develops anxious, obsessive and harm avoiding behaviors. In order to reduce intense anxiety caused by high serotonin level, people starve and diet. This lower the serotonin level.

Q6. What is the percentage of anorexics that relapse within one year?

Answer: Nearly 50% of anorexics patients relapse within one year. Q7. What combination of treatments is necessary for someone to recover from an eating disorder?
Answer: To treat an eating disorder, the doctors need to look at both sides of the disorder. One being the causes and issues causing the disorders, they need to cater the symptoms and the behaviors of eating that are so risky.
Also both individual and group therapy are essential for treating eating disorders. Q8. Why is it so unhealthy for an anorexic woman not to menstruate?
Answer: When females starve or do vigorous exercises it decreases the production of hormone estrogen, which is an essential for growth of bones and for menstruation. Approximately, one third of bone mass of a women is lost of aged twenty five years who lives without menstruating for about five years as compared to a healthy twenty five year old female.
Thus a thirty year old woman who lives without menstruating for about 15 years, transforms her bones into that of a seventy year old woman. Hence it’s very unhealthy for an anorexic woman not to menstruate.

Q9. What is bulimia? Explain how it is different from Anorexia Nervosa?

Answer: Bulimia is a disorder which was discovered in 1979. It is a disorder characterized by repeated episodes of binge eating and purging or vomiting. It is caused by laxatives of excessive exercise. While people who suffer from Anorexia control their caloric intake for long periods of time and starve themselves purposely. Weight loss in case of Anorexia is achieved by starving, avoiding food, excessive exercise and in case of bulimia weight loss is achieved by self-induced vomiting or through laxatives.

Q10. Why doesn’t a bulimic person feel full after eating a lot of food?

Answer: When a normal, healthy person eats food, small amount of food start to empty into the small intestine. This emptiness generates the discharge of cholecystokinin, which is a hormone that aids in transmission of fullness to the brain. The more the amount of cholecystokinin is discharged, the individual starts feeling full and he or she stops eating.
But in case of bulimia, it has been observed that bingeing on large amount of food causes the stomach to get empty more slowly as a result of which less cholecystokinin is discharged. The message of stop eating that gets delivered to the brain is weaker and hence the person does not feel full and carries on eating.