Lifelines Foundation for Eating Disorders

Parents with loved ones with eating disorders are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of the ravages of this disease.  Now we have one more lesson to learn!  This lesson is wreaking havoc on the medical health of an already fragile population of teenagers.  It is called DIABULIMIA.  This is not a “recognized” eating disorder classification but is it just as deadly.  For those of us that are constantly fighting insurance companies for eating disorder treatment coverage, this will be a new battle.  The best method of fighting this new aspect of eating disorder illness is to educate ourselves early and learn the early warning signs.

This aspect of bulimia is where the adolescent with diagnosed Type 1 or juvenile diabetes refuses to take their insulin needed for their body to convert sugar into energy.  A diabetic that refuses to take needed injections of insulin learns that he/she will loose weight because her body is unable to process glucose and therefore she ends up urinating out the calories she is eating.  Drastic weight loss is possible in a short period of time, and thus begins the vicious cycle of a new eating disorder.

Losing weight is not the only side effect of diabulimia!  Patients that refuse to take the proper injection of insulin can also suffer from blindness to potentially fatal hear disease or kidney failure. Diabetics that are not using their proper doses of insulin may think it is a dream come true, eating anything you want, and not absorbing the calories, BUT in reality it is a nightmare.  All their body functions, including breathing and heart functions are threatened by this condition.

For more information on DIABULIMIA please contact Dr. Peter Baginsky, a diabetologist in Santa Rosa California or Kelly Costello Allison, Ph. D., an assistant professor at the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia.