Wolfing down a hamburger combo and a litre of ice cream
only to vomit it up later, always running to the bathroom
scales, sinking into a depression over the slightest weight
gain -- it's no fun being a male athlete. Traditionally
the domain of women, eating disorders and disordered eating
are on the rise among men, and athletes seem to be especially
vulnerable.
"It hasn't been well recognized
and nutritionists now are just starting to get more
focused on it," says Dr Jack Taunton, Director of the
University of British Columbia's Allan McGavin Sports
Medicine Centre. The physical demands of sports often
lead to harsh dietary regimes, he explains. Sports where
lightness is the be all end all, like equestrian events
or track and field, and sports with an aesthetic component,
such as diving or figure skating, are disproportionally
affected. Disordered eating patterns also crop up in
sports like wrestling and body building, where athletes
sometimes try to achieve high definition by depleting
body fat and fluid reserves.
Dietary
hurdles
The problems run the gamut from full-blown eating disorders
such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, to disordered
eating patterns like following a dangerously unbalanced
diet.
Eating disorders are clearly much
less common among male athletes, but the numbers are
significant. Estimates put the ratio of female to male
athletes with eating disorders anywhere between 20:1
and 4:1. A major hurdle is that diagnosing men can be
tricky. "In males, it's a little bit harder because
you don't have the cessation of periods, which you do
in females, so you don't have that link which brings
them into the doctor," says Dr Julia Alleyne, Medical
Director of Sport Medicine at Toronto's Sunnybrook and
Women's College Health Sciences Centre. In men, the
signs of an eating disorder -- stained teeth, abrasions
on fingers, and a predisposition toward stress fractures,
etc -- can remain hidden for a very long time.
Food
for thought
Treatment depends on whether the athlete suffers from
an eating disorder or disordered eating. Treating eating
disorders is much more involved. Depending on the state
of the patient, it may require hospitalization and close
medical monitoring. And since these disorders are usually
triggered by a mixture of social and mental pressures,
it calls for a multidisciplinary approach, involving
psychiatrists, nutritionists and physiologists.
Dr Alleyne feels it's helpful to
explain to the patient that in order to reach their
athletic peak they need to watch their eating patterns.
"I think if you link it in to improving their performance,"
says Dr Alleyne, "the majority of athletes will be quite
open to wanting help with this issue, because they don't
want to live with these constant preoccupations either."
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