Milkshakes Offers Treatment To Teens Suffering From Anorexia

Who says teenagers cannot have a good time while suffering from anorexia nervosa?

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by extreme low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight.

The condition largely affects adolescent females, who make up more than 40 percent of all cases. As much as 3 percent of American girls and women are anorexic.

Contributing causes may include genetics, personality type, hormones, stress and societal pressures.

Anorexia carries the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric condition. Previous research by Dr. Halmi found that 7 percent of affected women died within 10 years. In a Swedish, study that followed patients for 30 years, 18 percent to 20 percent of the women died. Even when anorexia is not fatal, it can cause long-term complications, including damage to the heart and bones.

According to a recent research, one of the best treatments to teenagers suffering from anorexia nervosa is by feeding them with milkshakes and other high-calorie meals like macaroni and cheese until they regain a healthy weight.

The treatment known as Behavioural Family Therapy allows parents to feed these types of foods to teenagers suffering from this type of medical condition.

The treatment also known as Maudsley Approach, named after a hospital in London is an effective cure to anorexia nervosa among teens since it was first tried in the 1980s.

Behavioural Family Therapy offers best cure to anorexia nervosa since both the patient and his or her parents are joining hands to bring cure to their medical condition.

The importance of the approached is the fact that it does not only offers great bonding moment between the patients and parents but also ensure proper care is administered.

Based on this kind of treatment it is the parents who will monitor the food intake of the patient and one of kind of food are milkshakes so that their love one will regain back his or her health.

Once the patient regains back the loss weight and health, the parents and the therapist would then educate that person to be more responsible with the food intake.

Previous research has shown the Maudsley Approach successfully prevented hospitalization and helped adolescents recover their normal weights, with at least 75 percent of patients maintaining their recovery after five years.

Milkshakes as cure for anorexia is indeed a welcome development among teens.

I hope that more teens suffering from anorexia around the world can find cure in this kind of treatment.