~Eating Problems - Article~ Womens Issues

Eating Disorders affect men too

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The news that popular teenage actress Mary-Kate Olson is reportedly being treated for an eating disorder is a disturbingly familiar tale. It's estimated that some 10 million women suffer from anorexia or bulimia. But what may surprise you is the fact that a growing number of people being treated for the disorders are men. CBS News Correspondent John Roberts reports for The Early Show.

"I thought I looked fat. I thought I needed to lose weight."
It was in high school that Garrett Athenas developed his eating disorder. A runner, he was dropping what he thought was excess weight to shave his times. "I didn't see what other people saw."
What people saw was a young man wasting away, losing 20 pounds in a single month through relentless exercise and skipping meals. But no one - not his twin brother, his parents nor his friends -- suspected Athenas was an out-of-control anorexic. "I felt that no one understood me. There was no help."

There are no large long-term studies on men and eating disorders, so it's unknown just how many are afflicted. But experts believe it's well over a million -- and growing.

"It's probably a few percent of the U.S. male population ? 2, 3, 4 percent," says Dr. Timothy Walsh of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. "It's a good number." Eating disorders first appeared among men in sports that demand strict weight discipline - like wrestling. But the numbers have recently exploded.

"No one saw any real increase in male eating disorders until 5 or 10 years ago and then suddenly, boom! Like something happened," says Dr. Ira Sacker, an eating disorder expert. What happened, say experts, is a media blitz of biceps, six-pack abs and chiseled faces. Men now face the same body-image pressures woman have confronted for decades. And some are falling into the same traps.

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