Therapist Unlimited Blog

Those children facing anorexia have higher chances of suffering from impaired bone development when they reach adolescent.
This was the result of a recent research which also uncovered that children and teenagers with even mild cases of anorexia exhibit abnormal bone structure.
Anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by emaciation, distorted body image and intense fear of gaining weight.
Miriam A. Bredella, M.D., musculoskeletal radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston said Adolescence is the most critical period for growth of bone mass, and the onset of anorexia interferes with that process, impairment of bone development may permanently alter bone structure and increase the risk of fractures and osteoporosis in adult life.
Bredella revealed people with the disorder are obsessed with weight control and often perceive themselves as overweight, even when they are dangerously thin.

Recent studies have shown that anorexia could affect adolescent bone development.

She said the disorder primarily occurs among young women and affects one in 100 adolescent girls.
The medical expert added among the many health problems associated with anorexia is bone loss.
To get the data, Bredella and her team used high-resolution, flat-panel volume computed tomography (CT) and DXA to study 10 adolescent girls, age 13 to 18, with mild anorexia and 10 age-matched girls without the disorder.
The new, high-resolution CT exam allowed the researchers to identify differences in bone structure between the patients with anorexia and the healthy controls, whereas bone mineral density measurements obtained using DXA did not.
The researchers said the results showed that while there was not a significant difference in bone mineral density between the anorexic patients and the healthy control group, there were significant structural differences, indicating that changes in bone structure begin to occur in anorexic patients well before decreases in bone density.
Moreover, the researchers claimed their data suggest that reassuring values of bone mineral density obtained using DXA may not reflect the true status of bone structure in this undernourished population.
Bredella said that in patients with anorexia, bone structure should be analyzed to detect abnormal bone health.