Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder and women are at high risk of this disorder as compared to men. People suffering from this disorder have huge problems with their physical and mental well-being. They fall physically and mentally ill showing a huge number of symptoms. Bulimia symptoms can be fatal and lead to death if they are not identified and treated on time. Most of the people do not know that they are bulimic, until the symptoms turn out to be too severe and hazardous to their life. There a number of ways, sufferers of this disease can try to get rid of bulimia nervosa.

Signs and symptoms of bulimia:

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Binge-purge cycle:

Normally people suffering from bulimia, have irregular eating habits. They follow episodes of overeating and refraining from food completely. When they binge eat, they usually gain weight and with guilt of being overweight, they try to purge food. This causes imbalance in the digestive system and develops various digestive disorders. Such as acidic reflux, diarrhea, etc.

Vomiting forcefully in an attempt to reduce weight:

Irregular eating habits generally cause increase in body weight. Therefore, they take help of vomiting the food before it is digested in order to get rid of the extra calories within the body. Vomiting in this case is usually forceful and uninvited, as they feel ashamed of being overweight. This causes electrolytic imbalance in the body due to excessive loss of fluids from the body.

Illegal use of drugs:

Such people use many drugs that help them in reducing weight. Some of the common drugs used by bulimic patients are diuretics, ipecac syrup, enemas and laxatives. These drugs invite various health issues; their overuse can even lead to death. Following are the effects of use of these drugs,

Diuretics – Diuretics increase urine formation in the body. This increases loss of salts from the body that causes loss of balance in the body.

Laxatives – Laxatives help in reducing body weight by increasing the amount of elimination of water from the intestine and increasing movement of the bowels. These laxatives never reduce the amount of calories within the body. Hence, their overuse causes excessive loss of water from the body.

Enemas –Liquid from the anal sphincter is flushed into the bowel in this process. This process is normally used in treating constipations, but it may be used for reducing weight by bulimic patients.

Ipecac syrup – This syrup is generally used to cause vomiting. It is used in case of food poisoning or drug overdose in a patient, but it may be used by the patients of bulimia to make them vomit and reduce weight. Its overuse decreases blood pressure, lowers pulse rate, diarrhea and causes many other disorders.

No interest in socializing:

People suffering from such disorders like to be alone and do not like be seen in social gatherings. This is mainly because they feel ashamed of being over weight. They suffer from low self-esteem and do not love the way they look. They value physical appearance and always talk about things related to appearance of people. They often talk about weight, body shape, dieting, etc.

Aggressive exercise:

They usually exercise a lot in an attempt to reduce weight and burn calories. They perform frequent episodes of exercise for long time. These exercises are aggressive enough to reduce weight drastically. They usually perform heavy exercises in the gym like weight lifting, pushups, etc.

Keeping things secret:

People suffering from such physiological disorders usually try to hide such behavior. They do everything secretly and always like to stay alone. They may not allow others to enter into their room. They also hide food secretly in their room and eat it behind closed doors. You will find that huge amount of food is missing from the house due to this. They usually eat less when people are around them, as they feel ashamed of eating in front of others.

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