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Eating Disorders
If Only I Had a Flatter Stomach
Eating disorders and older women, not Maggie Smith
Posted July 5, 2012
“If only I could drop five pounds.”
“I just need to lose this tummy. I so want a flat stomach!”
“Jean has such a pretty face. Too bad she’s so fat.”
Hyper-sensitive teenage girls sniping at themselves and others? Not anymore. Now you can hear the same conversation among people whose social calendars include a lot more memorial services than junior proms.
Around the table at your local retirement community, you could hear:
“I’m going to the Joneses’ grandson’s wedding this weekend. They always have so much food. I just know I’m going to gain five pounds.”
“I know! And I am so sick of my tummy!”
Out to lunch in a fancy restaurant, you could see: Two elderly women, perhaps on their way to an art museum, each ordering the green salad, dressing on the side, and coffee. Hold the bread.
All of the above is anecdotal, but a recent study confirms my observations. University of North Carolina researchers polled 1,849 women over the age of 50, average age 59. The headlines:
Sixty-two percent said their weight or shape has a negative impact on their lives.
A "whopping" (the researchers’ word) 79 percent said weight or shape affected how they perceive themselves
Fourty-one percent checked their body daily
Thirty-six percent had spent half the previous five years dieting.
Yes, women over 50 are downing diet pills, diuretics and laxatives. They are spending way too much time exercising. And they purge.
The study appeared June 21, 2012, in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eat.22030/full
In the introduction, researchers note the surprise in all this is that previous studies in the United States and Europe have reported reduced risk for eating disorders as women mature.
But as author Cynthia Bulik points out, eating disorders may be even more dangerous for older women. They can cause cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal problems.
Janice Bremis was not at all surprised by these findings. As executive director of the Eating Disorders Resource Center of Silicon Valley http://www.edrcsv.org/ she has seen older clients for years. And the UNC surveys were anonymous. “Many people may share on a survey but not in person.”
Bremis had years of very serious health problems. She went to dozens of doctors, including endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, cardiologist, gynecologist, emergency physicians, ENT, neurologist, dentists, internists, sleep disorders specialist, orthopedist and podiatrist.
“The only one who ever screened me or asked me about an eating disorder was the podiatrist!”
Bremis recently had a bulimic client, a 64-year-old woman, who was dreading her granddaughter’s first birthday party, as she dreads all social occasions.
You don’t have to be an older woman or a teenage girl to get an eating disorder. You could be an old man, as a previous study found.
In a future post we’ll talk about the why of all this grim news. For now, let’s end with a little humor. Leave it to the Onion, www.onion.com/articles-eating-disorders, with its sendup of person-on-the-street interviews.
“A study by researchers at the University of North Carolina found that 13 percent of women 50 years of age and older had an eating disorder such as binge-eating or bulimia, including many women over the age of 75. What do you think?
“ Look, once your husband's gone, there's nobody left to keep up appearances or keep down food for.”
Well, you know, you get all busy and preoccupied, then pow, suddenly you're 50, and it dawns on you, 'My God, I never got around to that eating disorder.’ “
(And my personal favorite:)
“No wonder, when they're being constantly bombarded with unrealistic images of Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.”
If only I could have a flat stomach like Maggie Smith!
