Is anorexia and bulimia considered a disease? ?

Question

or mental condition?

Answer 1

if it must be one or the other i'd say mental condition, but it's actually a disorder.  A disease is an agent which spreads, this is a condition in which their minds start to mess with itself

Answer 2

i wouldn't say a disease but it is very much an illness  and a very serious one too.

Answer 3

A mental condition.

Hope i hoped.

Answer 4

its a bit of both I think but this might help, Read this......

Anorexia Bulimia - An Eating Disorder with a Major Impact

Anorexia Bulimia is an eating disorder which can have a major impact on the body. While professional mental health care is crucial for individuals suffering from this disorder, so too is medical evaluation and treatment. Self-imposed starvation and binge/purge cycles have serious physiological effects.

Anorexia Bulimia - The Medical Effects of Binging and Purging

Anorexia Bulimia can cause injury to the esophagus (the tube connecting the mouth and stomach) due to cycles of repeated vomiting. Bile and acid from the stomach irritates and inflames the membrane that lines the esophagus, causing a condition known as esophagitis, which is sometimes severe enough to cause scarring and narrowing. This passageway can become so narrow that it is difficult for food to pass through. The physical stress of vomiting can cause tears in the lining of the esophagus. These tears may bleed massively or cause the esophagus to rupture. This is a life-threatening condition that requires immediate surgery.

Anorexia Bulimia can also cause injury to the stomach due to binge eating. Frequent vomiting commonly causes gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining. Also, eating a large meal very rapidly, combined with slower emptying of food from the stomach may, on very rare occasions, cause the stomach to rupture, causing death from peritonitis. Lung complications occur when self-induced vomiting leads to aspiration of food particles, gastric acid, and bacteria from the stomach into the lungs, producing pneumonia.

Kidney and heart complications, when they occur, are often severe. Fasting, vomiting, and over-use of laxatives may result in loss of fluid and crucial electrolytes from the body. Chronic dehydration and low potassium levels can lead to kidney stones and even kidney failure. Loss of body acids, as a result of frequent vomiting, leads to high alkali levels in the blood and body tissues. This may cause weakness, constipation and fatigue. Severe alkalosis and potassium deficiency can lead to an uneven heart rate or sudden death. Injury to the intestines, particularly the colon, commonly results from laxative abuse. Damage to the intestinal lining may lead to ulcers and produce bloody stools.

Anorexia Bulimia can cause injury to the skin in various ways. Most over-the-counter laxatives contain phenolphthalein, which may cause sores in the skin and hyperpigmentation (brown or gray spots). Excessive and forceful vomiting may result in hemorrhages in the blood vessels in the eye. Injury to the teeth is quite common. Chronic vomiting increases the acidity of the mouth and results in erosion of the teeth's enamel and dentin.

Anorexia Bulimia - Laxatives, Diet Pills & Other Drugs

Anorexia Bulimia victims often use drugs, over-the-counter as well as prescription, in their efforts to remain thin. Laxatives, for example, may seem to move food through the body more rapidly and may relieve abdominal distention after binging, but they do not prevent the calories in the food form being absorbed. The temporary weight loss that is seen after using laxatives is mostly due to loss of water in the bowel movement, and will be naturally regained. Misuse of laxatives is harmful in several ways: they upset the body's electrolyte balance; they lead to dehydration; they damage the digestive tract lining; and they let the bowels get lazy, so that one may experience constipation when laxatives are not used.

Diuretics, or water pills, increase urine excretion and can cause a sudden weight loss. A person who fails to distinguish between loss of body fat and loss of water may see this as a desirable effect and start using diuretics to lose weight. But because the only loss induced is water, the result is dehydration. In addition to causing dehydration, diuretics are also dangerous because they can increase the loss of calcium, potassium, magnesium and zinc from the body. They can also cause rebound retention of salt and water, making the body more sensitive to diet changes. Ipecac syrup, which is taken to induce vomiting, has been linked to deaths of several patients with eating disorders. Emetine, the active ingredient, can build up in tissue and cause muscle or heart weakness. Ipecac is toxic, whether taken as a single large dose or as small doses that can build up over time.

Anorexia Bulimia victims may take diet pills to help with weight loss. The best-known prescription pills are Dexedrine and Benzedrine, but over-the-counter drugs are also misused. These reduce appetite, but only temporarily. Typically the appetite returns to normal after a week or two, the lost weight is regained, and the user then has the problem of trying to get off the drug without gaining more weight. Warning: these drugs are of little use in achieving and maintaining weight loss and can become dangerously addicting.

An

Answer 5

No, they're eating disorders.

Answer 6

a mental illness related disease.

Answer 7

Addiction like drugs, booze, and tobacco (and just as hard to break)

Answer 8

They are considered to be a kind of mental illness.

Answer 9

I would call it a mental disorder.

Answer 10

It's considered a disease in the same way alcoholism is a disease.

By that I mean it's really just a mental condition but to be P.C. and make people feel better about themselves they've decided to call it a disease.

Answer 11

Both I think?

Answer 12

anorexie isnt....if people say it is then its just to make the anorexic people look better....its their choice

dont no the other one

Answer 13

It is a mental condition... Anorexia nervosa (I think) is a condition where a person feels that he/she is "s**y", even though he/she is very slim, thus he/she is afraid to eat because he/she might got fat...

Answer 14

No they are disorders, which are like disturbances in "normal" functioning.

a Disease is more a condition that interferes with physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.  

Answer 15

Both anorexia and bulimia are psychological disorders and since all psychological disorders are diseases the answer is that they are both psychological disorders and diseases.

Answer 16

Mental condition! xxxxx

Answer 17

I always thought it was a mental dissorder

Answer 18

People with anorexia starve themselves, avoid high-calorie foods and exercise constantly. People with bulimia eat huge amounts of food, but they throw up soon after eating, or take laxatives or diuretics (water pills) to keep from gaining weight. People with bulimia don't usually lose as much weight as people with anorexia

Both  are eating disorders .  And based on that might  be considered

as mental health conditions  or aberrancies in behavior based on poor self-image.  However, there are physical components.to these disorders.    

Answer 19

both...

a disease because when it goes too intense.. watch out... life threatening things can happen..

mental...

because people who are considered normal might do the right thing.. I mean, that is no way to lose weight.. you have to be mentally, physicall strong to do something like that...