Hey Ray Peat Forum,
Long time reader, first time poster. I want to try and help out my friend, she is an early 20's female who has been dealing with anorexia nervosa (AN) for about 2 years now. It's not clear to me that the traditional medical system is helping her much, and I want to suggest some more ideas to help get her back on track before the demands of her career start kicking in later this year. Brief history and quick facts on the 'patient':
- Has swung from severely underweight to slightly overweight, to back to normal (physically healthy looking) now
- History of weird binge diets, e.g. keto, fasting, you name it. Used to have intense exercise regimens too
- Has gone through multiple 6 week treatment programs at the hospital, where they basically make sure the patients eat 2 meals and 2 snacks over the day while in clinic, and don't throw up (purge)
- Is currently on SSRIs from psychiatrist, in theory serotonin is supposed to help regulate appetite....
- Has been taking a sleeping pill for last ~6 months, otherwise has trouble falling asleep
- (To me at least) presents classic signs of Asperger's in personality and mannerisms
- Currently has trouble with not purging, will typically have 3+ days per week where she does
- Says she feels terrible when she's full, afraid she's going to 'explode'/instantaneously gain a lot of weight (she's currently at a healthy weight)
- Presents some classic hypothyroid symptoms: always feeling cold (especially extremities), low pulse/heart rate, low blood pressure, but TSH reading is low, ~0.9 (I know, not the be-all measurement for thyroid)
- Seems to lack an 'internal guidance system'. Hard to describe; but imagine someone very submissive, who gets very lost and stressed without an institution (e.g. university) providing directions on what to do, implying a day plan, etc.
- Trouble acknowledging body signals, i.e. will eat what she is told to eat, then ends up getting too full (overeats), feels terrible, purges... Something in the feedback system seems off with bodily signals and/or their mental interpretation
- Is willing to try various new foods/diets at least in small doses in my company. Responds extremely well to orange juice! =D
I'll try and update with more info as I recall, and I can certainly try and answer any additional questions. I would love to hear the thoughts of this forum who may have experience with this type of issue. Open to all ideas, but for practicality sake maybe various tests and diet recommendations to try out would be a good starting point.
Thanks!
Long time reader, first time poster. I want to try and help out my friend, she is an early 20's female who has been dealing with anorexia nervosa (AN) for about 2 years now. It's not clear to me that the traditional medical system is helping her much, and I want to suggest some more ideas to help get her back on track before the demands of her career start kicking in later this year. Brief history and quick facts on the 'patient':
- Has swung from severely underweight to slightly overweight, to back to normal (physically healthy looking) now
- History of weird binge diets, e.g. keto, fasting, you name it. Used to have intense exercise regimens too
- Has gone through multiple 6 week treatment programs at the hospital, where they basically make sure the patients eat 2 meals and 2 snacks over the day while in clinic, and don't throw up (purge)
- Is currently on SSRIs from psychiatrist, in theory serotonin is supposed to help regulate appetite....
- Has been taking a sleeping pill for last ~6 months, otherwise has trouble falling asleep
- (To me at least) presents classic signs of Asperger's in personality and mannerisms
- Currently has trouble with not purging, will typically have 3+ days per week where she does
- Says she feels terrible when she's full, afraid she's going to 'explode'/instantaneously gain a lot of weight (she's currently at a healthy weight)
- Presents some classic hypothyroid symptoms: always feeling cold (especially extremities), low pulse/heart rate, low blood pressure, but TSH reading is low, ~0.9 (I know, not the be-all measurement for thyroid)
- Seems to lack an 'internal guidance system'. Hard to describe; but imagine someone very submissive, who gets very lost and stressed without an institution (e.g. university) providing directions on what to do, implying a day plan, etc.
- Trouble acknowledging body signals, i.e. will eat what she is told to eat, then ends up getting too full (overeats), feels terrible, purges... Something in the feedback system seems off with bodily signals and/or their mental interpretation
- Is willing to try various new foods/diets at least in small doses in my company. Responds extremely well to orange juice! =D
I'll try and update with more info as I recall, and I can certainly try and answer any additional questions. I would love to hear the thoughts of this forum who may have experience with this type of issue. Open to all ideas, but for practicality sake maybe various tests and diet recommendations to try out would be a good starting point.
Thanks!