Throughout recorded history and even before, mankind has suffered from a variety of illnesses and ailments. Whether it be from viruses, bacterium, or from the person himself, diseases and other disorders continue to take their toll, both physically and mentally. Among these disorders, one might find it unusual to find that even the very act of eating can sometimes be harmful to oneself. Compulsive overeating, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa are disorders that do not receive much of the media spotlight: nevertheless, these are serious enough to warrant medical care, since if left untreated, the patients succumb to the disorder or to one of many related side effects. These eating disorders combined affect about five million people in the United States alone, and of that number, about one percent of men and five percent of adolescent and adult women have anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. What is even more compelling is that fifteen percent of young women have unhealthy or disordered eating patterns that, in time, could lead to severe health problems. As if these statistics were not sobering enough, about one thousand women die from anorexia nervosa each year (http://www.mirror-miror.org/symptoms.htm). Research has proven that there is no single group of people afflicted with these disorders. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and compulsive overeating can strike anyone, no matter their ethnicity, sex, or age. Other illnesses can bring about eating disorders, but more often than not their origin is somewhat uncertain. What one can be certain of is that these diseases can be cured, although, not without the disorder taking its toll on the body. Grants and funds have been set up for the education of people about eating disorders and to provide help and support, such as the Elisa Ruth McCall Memorial Endowment Fund, established in memory of Elisa McCall, who at age 20 died from an eating disorder (http://www.mirror-miror....
