Dr. Susan J. Mendelsohn is all too familiar with eating disorders: she has personally wrestled with them for more than fifteen years.

It’s Not about the Weight: Attacking Eating Disorders from the Inside Out is part self-help guide and part memoir that tackles growing up with—and growing through—the challenge of body image distortions.

Whether you’re just beginning your battle with an eating disorder (ED) or have struggled for years, this guide addresses … More >>

It’s Not About the Weight: Attacking Eating Disorders from the Inside Out

I created this movie in order to emphasis the hardships that one must overcome if they are a sufferer of bulimia.

Of the binge eating disorder treatment options available, natural remedies can be of great benefit in alleviating symptoms of anxiety and depression associated with Bulimia without the negative side effects of prescription medications. Some herbal formulas that assist with the related symptoms of Bulimia include Passiflora Incarnata – to soothe the mind and calm the nerves. Hypericum perforatum (St John’s Wort) has been very successful in treating the depression which often accompanies an eating disorder.

Natural remedies such as MindSoothe may facilitate a reasonable attitude and lessen the burden on pressured minds. MindSoothe may also promote a well-adjusted outlook and positive temperament and support healthy sleep patterns and routine appetite.

Bulimia nervosa affects up to 4.2 percent of the females in the US.  If you find yourself needing to vomit after you eat, it’s time to get some help. Watch this video for more information, including help with bulimia recovery and more on other eating disorders.

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Of the binge eating disorder treatment options available, natural remedies can be of great benefit in alleviating symptoms of anxiety and depression associated with Bulimia without the negative side effects of prescription medications. Some herbal formulas that assist with the related symptoms of Bulimia include Passiflora Incarnata – to soothe the mind and calm the nerves. Hypericum perforatum (St John’s Wort) has been very successful in treating the depression which often accompanies an eating disorder.

Natural remedies such as MindSoothe may facilitate a reasonable attitude and lessen the burden on pressured minds. MindSoothe may also promote a well-adjusted outlook and positive temperament and support healthy sleep patterns and routine appetite.

Eating disorders are caused by abnormal eating patterns. These could be overeating or inadequate food intake. Many people tend to eat more food to suppress extreme emotions and depression. They use the snacks and food indulged in as escape routes to deal with emotional stress or bad relationships. Some common eating disorders are anorexia, compulsive eating, binge eating and bulimia.

Psychologists qualify an eating disorder as something of a mental illness that affects a person’s eating habits in such a way that drastically disturbs the physical health of that person. An in-depth analysis by psychologists and psychiatrists list the types of eating disorders as Anorexia Nervosa, Beriberi, Bulimia Nervosa, Hyperphagia, Kleine-Levin Syndrome, Rumination, Binge Eating Disorder, Orthorexia, and Pica. Among these, Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa rank as the most common eating disorder.  Read more...

Bulimia is an eating disorder. Someone with bulimia might binge on food and then vomit (also called purge) in a cycle of binging and purging. Binge eating refers to quickly eating large amounts of food over short periods of time. Purging involves forced vomiting, laxative use, excessive exercise, or fasting in an attempt to lose weight that might be gained from eating food or binging.

Bulimia, also called bulimia nervosa, is a disorder in the eating disorder spectrum. Bulimia is characterized by episodes of secretive excessive eating (bingeing) followed by inappropriate methods of weight control, such as self-induced vomiting (purging), abuse of laxatives and diuretics, or excessive exercise. Like anorexia, bulimia is a psychological disorder. It is another condition that goes beyond out-of-control dieting. The cycle of overeating and purging can quickly become an obsession similar to an addiction to drugs or other substances.

Symptoms of Bulimia

Signs of malnutrition or dehydration may be present including dry skin, changes in the hair and nails, swelling of the lower legs and feet, or loss of sensation in the hands or feet.  Read more...

Eating disorders are still a major problem among teenagers and young adults. When a family member is diagnosed with the disorder, the road to acceptance and recovery can be long. Here are eight tips for helping them and the rest of your family to get through it.

Teenagers usually don’t communicate everything to their parents. It is the nature of being young. To bridge that gap it is up to parents to keep the lines open and spend quality time with their children. That is one way to catch eating disorders before they get out of control.

1. Acceptance – A parent’s first reaction is that their child is sick because of something that they did or didn’t do. That leads to denial of the real problem behind the eating disorder. Without any reservations, believe what the doctor says and admit that your child, parent, sibling or spouse has an eating disorder.  Read more...

When you think of eating disorders, you think of Karen Carpenter or one of Hollywood’s young starlets. But, these disorders don’t just affect girls and women. Men and boys can be just as affected by them.

Eating disorders are not new and neither is their existence in the male population. The reason you may not have heard about it is the stigma attached to having a problem controlling your food. According to a Harvard study (2007), as much as 25 percent of those in the study were anorexic males and 40 percent were binge-eating males. For a condition that has been decidedly “female” these are high numbers.

The effects of eating disorders are more readily noticed among girls. Wearing tight-fitting clothing or other outfits that show their shape reveal the skin and bones that mortify parents and friends. Girls are also more likely to confide in a friend about their “new diet” than guys are.  Read more...

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by excessive fear of gaining weight. The fear drives the sufferer to do whatever they can, no matter how extreme, to keep the weight off. The catch here is that their distorted view of their body prevents them from ever losing enough weight.

Doctors don’t know what causes anorexia nervosa. The rise in the condition is blamed on society’s image of beauty. When young girls (and boys), see the beautiful bodies of models gracing the covers of magazines and the movie screen, their own inadequacies about their body surface. It is not uncommon to have image issues as a teenager, but choosing an eating disorder as the way out, is.

Family dynamics have also been seen as a cause. In families where communication is poor and affection withheld, kids seek to find control and for anorexics, the control is the food that they eat. Having high expectations that put undue pressure on the child can also lead to eating disorders.  Read more...

The two most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Both conditions can affect either males or females and are extremely serious. To protect someone you love or care about, learn the warning signs of eating disorders.

An eating disorder develops from an unhealthy view of yourself and your relationship to food. Food is a vehicle for delivering nutrients to the body. That doesn’t mean that food can’t taste good but that eating the right foods is important for growth, health and a positive body image.

Anorexia nervosa involves a fear of gaining weight. No matter how slim the person is, when they look in the mirror they see someone who is too fat. In an attempt to control their weight, a person with anorexia nervosa will eat small portions of food. The problem here is that the portions are not big enough to provide any type of good nutrition.  Read more...

by Helen Graham

TWENTIETH-CENTURY SCIENCE

Investigations into the therapeutic use of color were carried out in Europe during the early twentieth century, notably by Rudolph Steiner, who related color to form, shape, and sound. He suggested that the vibrational quality of certain colors is amplified by some forms, and that certain combinations of color and shape have either destructive or regenerative effects on living organisms. In the schools inspired by Steiners work, classrooms are painted and textured to correspond to the mood of children at various stages of their development.

Rudolph Steiners work was continued by Theo Gimbel, who established the Hygeia Studios and College of Color Therapy in Britain. Among the principles explored by Gimbel are the claims of Max Luscher, a former professor of psychology at Basle University, who claimed that color preferences demonstrate states of mind and/or glandular imbalance, and can be used as the basis for physical and psychological diagnosis. Luschers theory, which forms the basis of the Luscher Color Test, rests on the idea that the significance of color for man originates in his early history, when his behavior was governed by night and day. Luscher believed that the colors associated with these two environments ‘ yellow and dark Blue ‘ are connected with differences in metabolic rate and glandular secretions appropriate to the energy required for nighttime sleep and daytime hunting. He also believed that autonomic (involuntary) responses are associated with other colors.  Read more...

The Master Cleanse Diet, also known as the Lemon Cleanse and the Maple Syrup diet, is a program developed by alternative health practitioner, Stanley Burroughs, in 1941. However, it didnt gain great popularity until Peter Glickman published his book Lose Weight, Have More Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days. The book promotes the ideas and believes of Burroughs to more modern audiences.

The Master Cleanse Diet was designed to aid in the removal of harmful toxins and poisons from the body. The diet was also promoted to treat ulcers but it only became popular for weight loss after the book was republished by Peter Glickman, published in 2004. And today, popularized by Beyonce, the Master Cleanse Diet is referred to a as a fast.

In 1976 Burroughs presented the diet in the book and promoted it not only for ulcers but for every kind of disease, claiming it would lead to the correction of most disorders. Unfortunately, the first book was disorganized and difficult to decipher. It was only after the second book was published did the general public learn of the theorized benefits of the content.  Read more...

At any time of the year, there is one person in every group of five people who has a diagnosable mental disorder. This means that 1/5 of all families in the United States have family members who are experiencing developing or aggravated symptoms of mental impairment. This translates to approximately 20% of the American society.

Mental health or the lack of it is experienced by all types of people in America- from children to elderly, from Native Americans to Hispanics, from physically healthy individuals to those who have chronic diseases.

General statistics

a. Nearly 9% of the American general population suffers from all forms of phobias.

b. 5% have major depression

c. Nearly 4 million individuals suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

d. 2 million Americans have Schizophrenia

e. MAnother 2 million have Bipolar Disorders

f. MNearly 2.5 million have Panic Disorders

Statistics on the Prevalence of Mental Disorders in Children

It is estimated that around 7 to 12 million children have symptoms of psychological disorders.  Read more...

The lemon cleanse is also referred to as the master cleanse. This type of diet and fasting program was developed in the 1940s by a self taught healer named Stanley Burroughs. He clamed that the lemon cleanse could heal all types of illnesses and diseases.

The lemon cleanse is an all liquid diet that involves drinking six to twelve glasses of a lemonade drink that contains lemon juice, water, cayenne pepper and maple syrup. There is a specific recipe for this drink.

According to Mr. Burroughs maple syrup is used because it is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. The lemons are considered one of the most efficient cleansing and healing foods in alternative medicine.

It is recommended that you stay on the lemon cleanse diet for ten days or more. Some advocates of this cleanse say the maximum time you can stay on this detoxifying diet is forty days. Any type of fasting or cleansing should be done with extreme caution because you will not be getting the normal amount of nutrition that your body is used to.  Read more...

More than letting you reduce the sum of money allocated for food, there is another very beneficial effect of planting vegetable gardens that will really give your health a great deal of favor: stress relief.

We all know how stress wreaks havoc to our overall health. Aside from the more obvious fact that stress takes out joy and serenity in our lives, it is also the root of many illnesses known to man. The negative effects of stress in our lives can and will bring several problems such as: heart diseases, depression, migraine, eating disorders and many others.

Having your own garden in the backyard is an easy and highly accessible method of stress relief. Since a vegetable garden is fairly easier to look after than one with ornamental plants, you know that working on your garden does not simply create additional stresses.  Read more...

The effects of color on life must have been of great significance to early human beings, whose very existence was governed by light and darkness. Most living things appear to be vitalized by the bright reds, oranges, and yellows of daylight and calmed and rejuvenated by the blues, indigos, and violets of the night.

For the ancients, the colors that make up sunlight were each considered to show a different aspect of the divine and to influence different qualities of life. Color is therefore an important feature in the symbolism of ancient cultures throughout the world, and the origins of Healing With Color in Western civilization can be traced back to the mythology of Ancient Egypt and Greece.

IN THE ANCIENT WORLD  Read more...

Osteoporosis is a chronic debilitating condition which affects the bone mass density of both men and women. Although postmenopausal women appeared to have more risk, both men and women have risk factors that can result in osteoporosis. Some of these risk factors are avoidable and some are unavoidable. Below are 10 risk factors that can make a difference in an individual’s health and their likelihood of developing osteoporosis as they age.

1. Although osteoporosis can affects men and women, sex is a risk factor. As many as twice as many women will develop osteoporosis than men. Women start out with a lower bone mass density, tend to live longer lives and lose the protection that estrogen gives their bones after menopause.

2. Bone mass density in the peak years is also a risk factor since the men who are thinner or have smaller body frames tend to have higher risk because their peak bone mass density is lower. Bone mass begins declining in everyone around the age of 35 years. If an individual starts with a higher number they can present or delay the onset of osteoporosis. Individuals younger than 30 can increase their peak bone mass density through weightlifting, weight-bearing exercises and appropriate nutrition.  Read more...