Dangerous substances people with eating disorders abuse of

According to some reports, between 3.5 and 7 percent of high school students abuse laxatives. Between 40 and 75 percent of bulimics abuse laxatives and about 15 percent of bulimics may abuse laxatives more than once a day. Almost 30 percent of bulimic patients use emetics, with 10 percent of those abusing them regularly.

Yet these are not effective weight loss methods! It is difficult to purge everything ingested, and some calories will be absorbed before vomiting. The use of laxatives also doesn't reduce calorie intake, as laxatives clear the large intestine, which is the last part of the digestive system, not the small intestine where nutrients actually enter the body. Laxative abuse is not only an inefficient manner of promoting weight loss, it is also dangerous. Individuals lose water, not weight, and it is a false belief that laxatives will diminish calorie absorption. Instead, laxative abusers can develop life-threatening medical complications:

The colon stops functioning properly and may require surgery.
They fail to absorb important vitamins.
Diarrhea may cause electrolyte imbalances.
Potassium, magnesium, and other electrolytes are lost, causing arrhythmias, muscle cramps, or seizures.
Laxative abusers are faced with periods of constipation (because they need the laxatives to move their bowels) and diarrhea.
When they try to stop they may gain water weight and return to the use of laxatives.

Emetics

Emetics are chemicals designed to produce vomiting in case of emergencies, like swallowing poison. They are very dangerous when used for any other purpose. They can cause fatal damage to the heart. Yet people purge by forcing vomiting this way.

Diuretics

Water pills have no effect on calories or body fat, but "water weight" is reduced. Diuretics throw electrolytes, those chemicals that make for proper bodily functions, out of kilter, which can be deadly.

Diet pills

Diet pills may be toxic if taken in high numbers.

Herbal products

People often think herbal products are safe because they are natural. This is not true. Herbal products are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and therefore do not need to prove they are effective or safe. Many of them are just as dangerous as chemical products.

Eating disorders create a destructive, frustrating cycle. When you use chemicals like diuretics, laxatives, emetics, and pills, you raise its danger level without creating diet "success." This is a self-maintaining cycle: starting with low self-esteem, to concerns about weight, to increase in dieting, to more severe dieting, to loss of control/bingeing, to purging. Dieting may lead to bingeing, which leads to less selfesteem and more concerns about weight and more dieting. Bingeing may lead to purging, undercutting self-esteem.

Purging can lead to people feeling hungry again, which leads to more bingeing. The emetics may make the bingeing more severe, just as the laxatives and the diuretics cause a weight-gain counteraction. To repeat: Purging rarely works well for weight loss. Laxatives and diuretics make you lose water, not weight. Vomiting is ineffective, since well over half of the calories have already been absorbed. If people don't die in the process, they're trapped into a long-term cycle of danger.

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