How do Eating Disorders Affect the Body and Brain?

Eating disorders frequently follow a chronic development and course. These are not conditions that mushroom within days or weeks, but usually develop subtly over lengthy periods of time. Because of this slow development, many struggling with the disorder don’t realize the full extent of its effects upon them. They struggle to differentiate between what’s normal and what’s part of their disorder.

Whatever the specific eating disorder diagnosis, its consequences are profound and highly destructive: The physical-, cognitive-, emotional-, and familial impacts of these disorders may result in being excluded from many areas of life. When the disorder has taken significant precedence, there may come a time when you plunge into severe social isolation. The disorder can halt your personal development and fill you with feelings of emptiness.

With this in mind, it’s necessary to have a proper reference of the most common impacts an eating disorder can have on your life. The following lists illustrate the numerous negative impacts eating disorders may have, but are not exhaustive. It does, however, comprehensively illustrate the potential destructive consequences of these illnesses.

The lists may help you identify symptoms that have become significant part of your life, but haven’t yet recognised as a probably a consequence of your eating disorder.

The Impact of Eating Disorders on the Brain

Destructive eating disorders behaviours like self-induced starvation, binge eating, or purging of food can cause alterations in brain functioning, causing impairment in emotional functioning, as well as cognitive functioning:

Emotional Functioning

• Diminished self-concept.
• Low self-esteem and poor self-image.
• Changes of personality.
• Depressive characteristics:
  • Negative overall view of the self and the world around them.
  • Depressed mood.
  • General irritation and quick to anger.
  • Emotional instability (e.g. crying, quick-to-anger).
  • High emotions, tearful, uptight, overly sensitive.
  • Suicidal thoughts.
• Anxiety:
  • Rarely relaxed or comfortable.
  • Generalized phobia or social phobia may appear.

Cognitive Functioning

• Overall decreased work productivity (capacity and speed).
• Decreased concentration and attention.
• Difficulty concentrating and lapses of memory.
• Obsessive thought patterns (e.g. excessive concern over the possibility of becoming fat).
• Impoverishment of imagination and creativity.
• Cognitive errors in thinking:
  • Constant mistaken thoughts/beliefs about food, weight and figure.
  • Over-estimation of weight and size.
  • Confusion of feelings of satiety/fullness.
  • Errors of thought regarding generalizations, dichotomies, etc.
  • Most frequent errors of thinking:

Polarization	“If I am not very thin, I will become very fat.”
Selective abstraction	“If people tell me I look better because I’ve put on weight, I must be very fat.”
Attribution of thoughts	“If people look at me, it must be because I’m fat.”
Personalization	“After eating, I think that everyone is looking at me and can see how much weight I have put on.”
Overgeneralization	“All fats are fattening.” “As I had a bad time at the party, I will always have a bad time at all parties.”
Catastrophic thinking	“I haven’t kept to my diet,… I never do anything right.”
Magical thinking	“Being slim and skinny means being happy and successful.”

• Mistaken thoughts and beliefs about several areas:

Thoughts of control/lack of control	“I have to control everything I eat, otherwise I will lose control.”
Thoughts about food and weight	“Food is fattening.” “There are good foods and bad foods.” “If I put on weight, even if it’s just a little, I won’t ever be able to stop getting fatter.”
Thoughts about body image	“My body is not the way I want it to be.” “I have to attain the figure I want.”
Thoughts marked by low self-esteem	“If I keep my weight how I want it to be, I will feel sure enough of myself to be able to take important decisions in life.” “If I am able to change my figure, I will be able to have confidence in myself again.”

The Impact of Eating Disorders on the Body

Eating disorders are known to have the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric condition. This is due to the overlap between the psychiatric condition and how these issues interact with the person’s physical body. Struggling with an eating disorder affects your thoughts and feelings, which in turn affect your choices and habits, which ultimately impact upon your physical health and body.

The most significant physical long-term complication for those struggling with anorexia nervosa is the increased risk of osteoporosis, often associated with amenorrhea (i.e. loss of menstruation). Although these complications are often reversible when normal eating patterns and body weight return, if not addressed soon enough, the prolonged combined effects may lead to even more severe complications, sometimes with fatal consequences.

Below is a list of the major bodily systems usually impacted by prolonged eating disorder behaviours:

Physiological Functioning

• Cardiovascular complications:
  • Hypotension.
  • Bradycardia (low pulse rate).
  • Heart muscle atrophy.
  • Heart arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), and/or Congestive heart failure.
  • Reduction in heart size.
  • Altered cardiovascular response to exercise.
  • Pericardial effusion.
  • Superior mesenteric artery syndrome.
  • Mitral valve prolapse.
  • Hypotension (low blood pressure).
  • Loss of subcutaneous cellular tissue, sometimes accompanied by increased pigmentation, carotenaemia, acrocyanosis with cold hands and feet.
  • Cold intolerance.
• Neurological complications:
  • Cerebral atrophy (CAT, RNN).
  • Abnormal Electroencephalogram (EEG).
  • Peripheral neuritis.
  • Convulsions.
  • Altered ANS function.
  • Loss of brain volume.
  • Slowed reflexes, paraesthesia.
• Neurological complications:
  • Anaemia: normochromic anaemia, normocytic anaemia, or iron deficiency anaemia.
  • Leukopenia, relative lymphocytosis, thrombocytopenia.
  • Hypocellular bone marrow.
  • Reduction in plasma proteins.
  • Reduction in ESR.
• Renal complications:
  • Pre-renal azotaemia.
  • Chronic or acute kidney stones and kidney failure.
  • Electrolyte- and mineral imbalances/alterations (hypokalaemia, hypomagnesemia, hypocalcaemia and hypophosphatemia), as well as Oedema (tissue swelling from water retention due to electrolyte imbalances).
  • Hypothermia, dehydration.
• Endocrinological complications:
  • Delayed growth and puberty (adolescents).
  • Reduction in gonadotropins, oestrogens and testosterone.
  • Euthyroid syndrome.
  • Increased cortisol.
  • Increased growth hormone.
  • Disturbed liver (and liver failure) and thyroid functioning.
• Muscular/Skeletal complications:
  • Cramps, tetanus, muscular weakness, myopathy.
  • Osteopenia, stress fractures.
• Gastroenterological complications:
  • Inflammation of the salivary glands, dental cavities and tooth enamel erosion (with vomiting), lesions to palate.
  • Irritation and ulcerative lesions in the throat, oesophagus and stomach.
  • Delayed gastric emptying, bowel irritation, acute constipation and intestinal obstruction.
  • Long-term disruptions of normal bowel functioning due to laxative abuse, Cathartic (non-functioning) colon, intestinal rupture from excessive use of laxatives, as well as laxative dependence.
  • Oesophagitis, gastroesophageal reflux.
  • Hypoglycaemia and raised hepatic enzyme levels.
• Immunological complications:
  • Bacterial infection (staphylococcus, with lung infections and tuberculosis).
• Dermatological complications:
  • Acrocyanosis.
  • Dry, rough and fragile hair (as well as extensive hair loss), and dry cracked skin.
  • Lanugo (development of excessively fine hair on the face, arms and legs).
  • Russell’s sign (calluses on the knuckles of the hands).
  • Oedemas.
• Gynaecological complications:
  • Amenorrhea (cessation of regular menstruation cycles).
  • Mammary atrophy, atrophic vaginitis because of decreased oestrogens.
• Metabolic complications:
  • Osteoporosis (i.e. inadequate bone calcium).
  • Hypercholesterolemia and hypercarotenaemia.

To wrap up…

The above lists illustrate the serious impact an eating disorder can have on your health. Many of these symptoms would develop over considerable time when living with an eating disorder. Symptoms development is often slow and subtle, and you could be struggling with any combination of them without recognising that they are a consequence of your disorder.

Hence, it’s really important to acknowledge when you have an issue, and undergo proper medical assessment by your healthcare provider to see whether any of these conditions might need attention. Don’t delay – the longer you avoid, the higher the chance that these will result in irreversible physical consequences.

If you need support navigating these challenges, contact us to schedule a consultation and take the first step toward recovery through our online eating disorder treatment program.