Athletes and Eating Disorders

With all of the excitement surrounding the London Olympic Games, it seems as though there is an abundance of news with a main focus on athletics. I recently read an article which reported on a new study conducted by sports medicine researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Here they found shortfalls in the methods which were currently being used to screen these athletes for the “female athlete triad” which could potentially put their lives at risk. These findings were published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine on April 12, 2012. A survey was done through 257 NCAA Division I universities to determine when and how often these athletes had health histories and physical examinations performed and also to evaluate the content of the pre-participation examination form which would be used to further asses’ the health of these athletes. The triad, as this article explains, is an interrelationship between energy availability, menstrual function and bone mineral density. Many college women who play sports do not have proper nutrition, may have eating disorders and a lack of menstruation as well as poor bone density. The results of this study were that 63% of the university athletic programs surveyed only a completed full history and exam on freshmen and transfer athletes. In addition to, only 9% had 9 or more of the 12 Athlete Triad screening recommendations on these examination forms. In my opinion, it seems that sometimes high collegiate sports programs take their sports more seriously than the health of their athletes, females in particular. Knowing that compulsive exercise and eating disorders are quite often co-morbid, one would have to wonder why further assessment of the health of these athletes isn’t taken seriously. Many times the comments that get made to these athletes who are possibly dealing with eating disorder or compulsive exercise issues only fuels the fire even more so. An athlete may be given positive feedback for intense, rigorous, and compulsive exercise as well as their strict nutrition; however, it may also be something that could end up killing them. I hope by this study and hopefully many more to come surrounding this topic, will create awareness and that college athlete programs will take more serious action. To read further on the signs of orthorexia, and excessive exercise please click here.

Hannah, Intern with Eating Disorder Hope