Information On Anorexia Statistics

Information on anorexia shows that researchers estimate that eight million Americans suffer from some form of an eating disorder. Such details have only recently become available in more abundance. As more and more scientists conduct research on the eating disorder, anorexia statistics become more readily available and up to date. Statistics can't tell us everything about the disease, but they can help us to understand who suffers from it, why they suffer from it, and hopefully how we can help treat them. "But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God" (Psalm 40:17).

Almost one million men and seven million women are anorexic. This means that about two in one hundred American women suffer from this eating disorder. Other staggering anorexia statistics show that eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Five to ten percent of anorexics die within ten years after contracting the disease; eighteen to twenty percent of anorexics will be dead after twenty years and only thirty to forty ever fully recover. Information on anorexia says that more females between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four die from anorexia nervosa than any other cause of death for that age range.

Twenty percent of people suffering from this disease will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems. Amazingly, with all the information on anorexia that we have and all we know about mortality rates, only one in ten people receives treatment for their eating disorder. Approximately 80 percent of those who do access treatment don't receive the intensity of treatment they need to in order to be on the road to recovery. They are sent home weeks earlier than a recommended stay.

In the United States, treatment for this disorder costs anywhere from 500 dollars to two thousand dollars per day. Most patients with anorexia nervosa require at least three to six months of inpatient care. Just one month runs, according to anorexia statistics, on average, 30,000 dollars. And most health insurance companies do not cover the cost of treatment for eating disorders for various reasons.

Other frightening facts tell us that anorexia nervosa is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents. According to anorexia statistics, fifty percent of girls between the ages of eleven and thirteen see themselves as overweight. And the eating disorder epidemic is not just occurring in the United States. In Japan, eating disorders are the most common psychological problems facing girls.

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