faulker053

I don’t know which made me saddest—her sense of vindication when reporting the oncologist’s orders: “I don’t want to see any more weight loss”, or her distress that her weight was up 5 pounds. Or perhaps it was her pride in getting down to the lowest adult weight she has seen in many decades. Ahh, the perks of esophageal cancer! She’s lived so tormented by her weight, berated by doctors and non-supportive family members to reach for something unattainable, to get thin, from the time she was a pretty, young, school-age girl. “You’re beautiful”, they’d say, “if only you could lose some weight.” Perfect labs and low normal blood pressure were not good enough. No, she didn’t look fat on paper. And yet her obesity just might have been the source of her potentially fatal illness. There. I’ve said it. Admittedly, GERD, gastroesophageal reflux, is linked with many factors, and obesity is just one of them.   But after a decade living on antacids, popping Rolaids like LifeSavers—no pun inte...

I don't know Lily Myers, whose YouTube clip follows, but I know lots of 'Lily Myers'. She is strong and powerful as she describes her mother and herself and the culture which helped to shape her, for better and for worse. She is painfully aware of eating disorders and the grip they can have on us. Please watch it. But don't blame your mothers, or your grandmothers, just as you can't blame them for the cancer and diabetes genes they pass on to you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k&app=desktop#! And make your voice heard--please don't keep silent, waiting for all the others to share their seemingly more important thoughts. What did you think of her poetry?

Perhaps you CAN rise above the clouds. I don’t know the Harvard psychologist Dr. Sheila Reindl, but I have recommended her book Sensing the Self , many, many times over the years. It’s filled with wisdom about recovery from bulimia, honed from Reindl’s extensive interviews with 13 recovered women. (Not bulimic? Please read on! There’s something here for you too!)   Maybe I was attracted to it having learned that several of the pseudonym-ed women were actually past patients of mine, shared with a therapist who contributed these cases to the book.  Or maybe that it meshed research with patient stories, extracting the essence of the recovery process into meaningful chapter themes.  Personally, I hate reading books about recovery (but I read this at the insistence of a patient). That likely has mostly to do with the fact that I discuss recovery almost 40 hours a week. Do I really want to engage with strangers’ stories on my down time? I don’t think so. Yet I likely suggest i...

What do you think? Does drinking diet soda cause you to gain weight or not? Too much diet soda? This is an old story; the media has summarized some studies done several years back concluding what many of you might fear—something with no calories can make you gain weight. But a look behind the sensationalized headlines showed something else. Yes, there was a link; more people who drank diet sodas were higher weight. But did drinking diet soda cause it? And were you able to take in this correct conclusion and hold on to it, or do you still fear diet soda? Oh, this is dangerous. I am not advocating for diet soda consumption! There’s no nutritional merit—no calories, no vitamins or minerals—and it may even have some negative effects. Namely, it may mask your hunger, making it more difficult to trust your need to eat. And large intakes of colas—regardless of type—may pose other consequences such as impacting your bone density .  But really my intent was not to discuss diet soda. Rath...

I know, I know, I’m way overdue for a blog post. The next real post I’ll be putting up this week—I promise. But first I need your help. I’m working on a presentation  entitled  From Meal Plans to Weighing Patients: Knowing When and How to Change Direction Based on Patient Readiness  for an  upc oming eating disorder conference, the Renfrew Center Foundation Conference . And I’d like you to have a voice! This is for all of you—whether you’ve struggled with Binge Eating Disorder, bulimia or anorexia—or don’t quite meet the criteria for any of these.   (And, family member-readers feel free to add your 2 cents, too). Consider a brief response to the following: What words or actions by a health care professional helped you/your loved one shift toward change? What advice would you like to share with healthcare providers so that they don’t repeat the mistakes they made in your/your loved one’s treatment? Specifically, regarding being weighed, providing nutrition recom...