Using Laxatives To Lose Weight

Using Laxatives To Lose Weight

Using Laxatives To Lose Weight

More and more people are becoming concerned with their weight. This comes after the surgeon general released a report naming obesity as one of the leading killers in the country. However, there have always been some people who take the idea of losing weight to extremes and develop eating disorders. Two common disorders are anorexia and bulimia. Is using laxatives to lose weight a form of bulimia?

Bulimia is normally characterized by eating in binges, then purging, or making oneself vomit the food right back up. This is accomplished by mechanical means with the old finger down the throat trick or by the use of drugs that cause a person to vomit, such as syrup of ipecac.

Using Laxatives To Lose Weight and digestive system

Some people feel that they can lose weight by forcing the food out the other end of the digestive system through the use of powerful laxatives or purgatives. Sadly, these people do not realize that the waste expelled forcefully in this manner can damage the walls of the bowel, creating a thin spot that can tear later or tearing the wall immediately. If the bowel becomes torn, waste material leaks into the abdominal cavity and can form a severe infection.

There are some people who have made use of laxatives so much a part of their routine that they are no longer able to have a normal bowel movement without taking them. This can lead to constipation or an impacted bowel that can rupture at any time and spill its entire contents inside the body.

Laxatives also change the body’s balance of water. More water is pushed into the bowel to assist in purging the waste, but it is taken from surrounding tissues. This can cause the person to dehydrate, leading to a whole world of other medical problems.

If a person is so conscious of his/her weight that he/she would force himself/herself to vomit or overdose on laxatives after virtually any meal, especially if this person eats large quantities at each meal, this person has an eating disorder. Based on the pattern of binging and purging, even though it is from the lower end of the digestive tract, repeatedly using laxatives to lose weight would appear to be a form of the eating disorder, bulimia.

Anyone suffering from this or any other eating disorder should seek immediate help from a medical doctor and a behavioral health specialist to locate the underlying causes and try to find a cure.

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