ER: Bulimia and the Teen Boy
I watch ER every week, almost religiously. It was once my favorite show, and still is one of my top picks. When I'm watching I also try to find interesting health stories that will fit for this blog.
On last week's episode "Officer Down", the issue that piqued my interest was Pratt's teen wrestler. The high school wrestling star came into the ER with what his mom thought was a stomach virus. While Pratt is examining him, he says his chest feels funny and then he goes into V-Tach (that's Ventricular Tachycardia for those of you who are interested in what these medical terms they toss around on TV mean). Pratt is able to bring him back around.
After a series of tests, he is diagnosed with an inflamed pancreas. Pratt is having a hard time understanding why a boy so young could have developed pancreatitis. He suspects the boy may be drinking heavily, which could cause the inflammation to the pancreas, but the wrestler swears he doesn't drink.
An ultrasound shows that the young wrestler has a very large cyst which will need to be removed through surgery. However, it turns out they can drain it with another less-invasive procedure.
After draining the cyst, Pratt notices there are lesions or scrapes on the boy's knuckles. (I'm guessing from scraping his teeth as he forced himself to vomit?) He correctly deduces that his young athlete is bulimic and argues with the kid about getting counseling. The boy assures him it isn't a problem and that he HAS to do it to maintain his weight and get a college scholarship.
The whole scenario was disturbing to me, because both my daughters participate in high school sports. Luckily, I know the coach well, and he would NEVER push the kids to lose weight so that they resorted to doing so in an unhealthy manner.
You also don't hear too much about teen boys and bulimia. It's usually stories about girls.
I wondered how common this is for boys, so I asked our WebMD psychologist, Dr. Patricia Farrell, to weigh in.
I think we all would like to think that this couldn't happen to our kids, but they sure are under a lot of pressure to perform these days. And, from reports I've read lately, it's getting harder and harder to get into college.
If you have a teen athlete, boy or girl, keep an eye out for any warning signs. I know I'll be paying a bit more attention, thanks to ER.
Do you know any teens who suffer from bulimia? How did you find out? Tell us about it.
Related Links:
Technorati Tags: ER, bulimia, eating disorders
On last week's episode "Officer Down", the issue that piqued my interest was Pratt's teen wrestler. The high school wrestling star came into the ER with what his mom thought was a stomach virus. While Pratt is examining him, he says his chest feels funny and then he goes into V-Tach (that's Ventricular Tachycardia for those of you who are interested in what these medical terms they toss around on TV mean). Pratt is able to bring him back around.
After a series of tests, he is diagnosed with an inflamed pancreas. Pratt is having a hard time understanding why a boy so young could have developed pancreatitis. He suspects the boy may be drinking heavily, which could cause the inflammation to the pancreas, but the wrestler swears he doesn't drink.
An ultrasound shows that the young wrestler has a very large cyst which will need to be removed through surgery. However, it turns out they can drain it with another less-invasive procedure.
After draining the cyst, Pratt notices there are lesions or scrapes on the boy's knuckles. (I'm guessing from scraping his teeth as he forced himself to vomit?) He correctly deduces that his young athlete is bulimic and argues with the kid about getting counseling. The boy assures him it isn't a problem and that he HAS to do it to maintain his weight and get a college scholarship.
The whole scenario was disturbing to me, because both my daughters participate in high school sports. Luckily, I know the coach well, and he would NEVER push the kids to lose weight so that they resorted to doing so in an unhealthy manner.
You also don't hear too much about teen boys and bulimia. It's usually stories about girls.
I wondered how common this is for boys, so I asked our WebMD psychologist, Dr. Patricia Farrell, to weigh in.
"For probably the past 20 years, we've been noticing, or rather bringing to the attention of the public, the incidence of eating disorders in male athletes, especially wrestlers and swimmers," Pat says. "Some of these athletes have been pushed to excessive dieting or purging so that they can remain in a lower weight class where their experience and skills will give them an edge over other boys in that weight class. Swimmers and scullers, too, are urged to restrict their weight and this leads to eating disorders, physical problems and later problems in life, such as poor body image, insecurity and depression. So coaches have a great responsibility to insure healthy attitudes about weight and eating in their athletes while they instill the proper attitude about athletic contests and preparation for them."
I think we all would like to think that this couldn't happen to our kids, but they sure are under a lot of pressure to perform these days. And, from reports I've read lately, it's getting harder and harder to get into college.
If you have a teen athlete, boy or girl, keep an eye out for any warning signs. I know I'll be paying a bit more attention, thanks to ER.
Do you know any teens who suffer from bulimia? How did you find out? Tell us about it.
Related Links:
Technorati Tags: ER, bulimia, eating disorders
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