Expert: Ryan Hale - 4/27/2009

Question
How does anorexia affect men ?

Answer
Dustin- anorexia used to be a problem people associated with women and their desire to look a certain way...mostly conforming to society's notion of how they should look?  How do we know society had a huge role to play?   Because in areas of the world that are closed off to Western influences, often having a "thicker" body was what was desired for women and eating disorders didn't exist for a large part.  Today with more and more access to media, even those areas of the world are starting to see changes with regard to eating disorders.

Because men are beginning to have more and more pressure placed on them for a "certain look," more males are beginning to experience the same pressures.  Think of all the men the world admires in today's society (most of the people who come to mind are most likely movie stars, musicians, and athletes.  All of them make their livings by how they look, their image or with their bodies right?  I mean, you didn't immediately start thinking about great scientists and philosophers right?  So even men are heavily involved in body image these days.  Plastic surgery is really on the rise for men as well.  In fact, it is the largest area of growth in the plastic surgery business... surgery for men.

For men, an eating disorder effects us much like women...with the exception of their bone density.  Women are very very susceptible to the effects the disorder has on bone density, however, men can experience this as well.  In fact in the worst cases, men and women will both experience dramatic losses in bone density to dangerous levels which puts them at risk for fractures.  fractures don't sound that bad, but we're talking about having to go into nursing care facilities to live because of debilitating fractures and effects on overall quality of life.

Men tend to have a bit more muscle mass and have the ability to  recover it a little bit better than women, but organ and tissue damage can still take place in both.  Women will experience dramatic changes in their fertility and reproductive systems that may not recover, whereas men are a little less effected.  The metabolism (the set point at which you burn calories, sort of like a thermostat for your body) can be effected for both men and women and may be for life after an eating disorder.  

As far as mental health goes, many factors that go into disorders for women are the same for men: body image, social pressures, social stress, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, control issues with friends and family.  There has been an ongoing debate whether or not eating disorders are a disease or if it is a behavior, because not everyone who goes through the difficulties I mentioned end up with an eating disorder.  The thinking is that people may have a predisposition to them and if they undergo emotional or physical stress, they may be more likely to go that direction.  Sort of like alcoholism.  People may have a genetic predisposition and if they are in the right circumstances, such as hanging out with people who encourage drinking or experiencing just the right emotional stress at the right moment in their lives, then they turn to drinking and can easily become alcoholics.

Hope this helps.  let me know if you have any other questions.