Risky diabetic diet: Skip insulin - Girls, women imperil eyes, kidneys, lives
Risky diabetic diet: Skip insulin - Girls, women imperil eyes, kidneys, lives
By Jim Ellis
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune and The Associated Press
Published June 18, 2007
Like many teenage girls, Lee Ann Thill was obsessed with her appearance. A diabetic, she already was suffering from bulimia -- forcing herself to throw up to lose weight. But it wasn't enough, and she'd recently put on 20 pounds.
Then one day at a camp for diabetic teens, she heard counselors chew out two girls for practicing "diabulimia" -- skipping their insulin so they could lose weight, one of the consequences of uncontrolled diabetes.
Don't you realize you could die if you skip your insulin? the counselor scolded. That you could fall into a coma or damage your kidneys or your eyes?
But that's not what registered with Thill, who has Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes. Instead she focused on this: Skipping insulin equals weight loss. For the next 17 years, diabulimia was her compulsion.
"I took just enough insulin to function," said Thill, now 34, of Magnolia, N.J.
Today she worries about the long-term damage that may have come from her weight obsession. At 25, a blood vessel hemorrhage in her eye required surgery. At 28, doctors told her she had damaged kidneys.
"I'm fearful for the future," Thill said. "I feel very strongly that had I taken care of myself, I could have lived as long as anyone without diabetes. I don't think that's going to happen now."
Diabulimia usually is practiced by teenage girls and young women, and it may be growing more common as the secret is exchanged on Internet bulletin boards for diabetics and those with eating disorders.
One expert who has studied the phenomenon estimates that 450,000 Type 1 diabetic women in the United States -- one-third of the total -- have skipped or shortchanged their insulin to lose weight and are risking a coma and an early death.
"People who do this behavior wind up with severe diabetic complications much earlier," said Ann Goebel-Fabbri, a clinical psychologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.
The American Diabetes Association has long known about insulin omission as a tactic to lose weight. But "diabulimia" is a term that has cropped up only in recent years and is not a recognized medical condition, said Barbara Anderson, a pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Type 1 diabetes is a disorder in which the body's own immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. People with the disease produce little or no insulin, so they take shots of the hormone daily.
- - -
Warning signs
Red flags for diabulimia include a change in eating habits -- typically someone who eats more but still loses weight -- low energy and high blood-sugar levels. Frequent urination is another signal. When sugars are high, the kidneys work overtime to filter the excess glucose from the blood. This purging of sugar from the body through the kidneys is similar to someone with bulimia, who binges and then purges, or vomits.
-- Associated Press
By Jim Ellis
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune and The Associated Press
Published June 18, 2007
Like many teenage girls, Lee Ann Thill was obsessed with her appearance. A diabetic, she already was suffering from bulimia -- forcing herself to throw up to lose weight. But it wasn't enough, and she'd recently put on 20 pounds.
Then one day at a camp for diabetic teens, she heard counselors chew out two girls for practicing "diabulimia" -- skipping their insulin so they could lose weight, one of the consequences of uncontrolled diabetes.
Don't you realize you could die if you skip your insulin? the counselor scolded. That you could fall into a coma or damage your kidneys or your eyes?
But that's not what registered with Thill, who has Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes. Instead she focused on this: Skipping insulin equals weight loss. For the next 17 years, diabulimia was her compulsion.
"I took just enough insulin to function," said Thill, now 34, of Magnolia, N.J.
Today she worries about the long-term damage that may have come from her weight obsession. At 25, a blood vessel hemorrhage in her eye required surgery. At 28, doctors told her she had damaged kidneys.
"I'm fearful for the future," Thill said. "I feel very strongly that had I taken care of myself, I could have lived as long as anyone without diabetes. I don't think that's going to happen now."
Diabulimia usually is practiced by teenage girls and young women, and it may be growing more common as the secret is exchanged on Internet bulletin boards for diabetics and those with eating disorders.
One expert who has studied the phenomenon estimates that 450,000 Type 1 diabetic women in the United States -- one-third of the total -- have skipped or shortchanged their insulin to lose weight and are risking a coma and an early death.
"People who do this behavior wind up with severe diabetic complications much earlier," said Ann Goebel-Fabbri, a clinical psychologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.
The American Diabetes Association has long known about insulin omission as a tactic to lose weight. But "diabulimia" is a term that has cropped up only in recent years and is not a recognized medical condition, said Barbara Anderson, a pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Type 1 diabetes is a disorder in which the body's own immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. People with the disease produce little or no insulin, so they take shots of the hormone daily.
- - -
Warning signs
Red flags for diabulimia include a change in eating habits -- typically someone who eats more but still loses weight -- low energy and high blood-sugar levels. Frequent urination is another signal. When sugars are high, the kidneys work overtime to filter the excess glucose from the blood. This purging of sugar from the body through the kidneys is similar to someone with bulimia, who binges and then purges, or vomits.
-- Associated Press
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 7:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home