Many men and women suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, this disorder is when a person does not want to eat and has an extreme fear of obesity, which is usually an irrational fear. However most people that engage in this kind of anorexic behavior don’t know the long term effects of anorexia nervosa.

Its known that anorexia is a mental disorder but the affected person does not want to admit it. The consequences of this can be devastating, they lack of self esteem, they have a negative self image and don’t want to get any help.

There are various consequences and long term effects that most people don’t consider, the most common ones are depression, anxiety, abuse of alcohol and drugs, hair loss, weak muscles, low potassium, low heart rate, low blood pressure, dehydration.

Other long term effects are damage of the brain, osteoporosis, bad memory, anemia, kidney failure, constipation, yellow skin and more. Those are some of the common effects of anorexia, the problem is that some of those health problems can persist for a long time after recovering.

There are cases of people with anorexia that went to recovery and they are now eating fine with nutrient food, however they still have problems with their teeth, their bones are weak and they need to be careful on any activity they do, their intestine is damage, their life is not the same as before, they now have the health problems of an old person.

All those effects can be avoided if anorexia is treat it at an early stage, don’t wait for the problem to get worse because the consequences are dramatic. The greatest challenge is to convince the person that she needs help, the family needs to talk to her and support her.