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Body Fat and Eating Disorders

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Body Fat and Eating Disorders
Kelly Jones
SCI/241
2/24/2013
Claudia Voges

According to "Obesity & Genetics" (2010), “Obesity is a major health hazard worldwide and is associated with several relatively common diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and some cancers.” Obesity and being overweight can result from an energy imbalance. Obesity and being overweight happen when you eat too many calories and are not getting enough exercise. A person’s body weight is the result of genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, culture, and socioeconomic status. A person’s environment and behavior can play a large role causing overweight and obesity. Eating disorders can happen to male and females.
Some issues that are associated with eating disorders are thinning hair, brittle nails, dry and or yellowish skin, anemia along with muscle wasting and weakness, constipation, brain damage, their body temperature drops internally causing the person to be cold all the time. Eating disorders can also cause infertility, along with lethargy and sluggishness or feeling tired all the time.
The way people eat has a direct effect on the endocrine system, the system that governs the body. For those with eating disorders where the natural functions of the endocrine system is impeded or degraded, this can have serious consequences on long-term health, especially for adolescents still in their formative years who after bouts with malnutrition and nutritional imbalances can look forward to potentially a lifetime of health problems. Additionally, eating disorders are psychological disorders and can either be caused by or lead to other mental disorders such as clinical depression, which has its own set of physical maladies.

References
Obesity & Genetics. (2010). Retrieved from

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