Expert: Nafeesah - 8/30/2008

Question
I suffered from an eating disorder and over-exercising for 2 years. After "going without" food for too long, I  began binge eating (without purging) at least once a week. As this cycle continued, I began to feel skin soreness for days after a binge eating episode. I suffered a long bout of extreme weight loss (at my lightest, I weighed 82 pounds. I am 5'6) to avoid the soreness.

I am now recovering and have not engaged in any eating disorder behaviors for 3 years. I weigh 120 pounds. The only side effect that has stayed with me is the skin soreness. It's not the outside of the skin, but more in the dermis. It can be horrible at times. The more I eat, the more sore I get. The less I eat, the less sore. No food = No soreness. I have been to countless doctors and have undergone countless tests with no diagnosis to date. I have worked with a nutritionist and allergist and have Eliminted the possibility that this is an allergy to a particular food. Have you ever heard of this before? I would love to be able to pinpoint something to help me choose a specialist who knows what's going on and who can help me to finally move on with my life.

I would appreciate any feedback you can give. Thank you :
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Answer
Your skin is the largest organ in your body and it can adjust to weight gain and loss, but seeing that you have had a long history of anorexia your skin had basically been forced to adjust to being in weight loss mode and now that you're putting weight back on to get to a healthy weight and staying there your skin is sore because it's being stretched to accomodate your weight gain. I would go to this site called something-fishy.org and it's a site for people who have or had eating disorders for resources and support. I've had it after having gained and lost weight a lot and you also need nutrients for skin health to help it to regenerate itself after having gone through stretching from weight gain and loss.