Eating Disorders Linked To Women With Diabetes

KYW's Medical Reports Sponsored By Independence Blue Cross

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- You may have heard of bulimia, an eating disorder where people will overeat and then puke themselves either by vomiting or taking medications like laxatives to lower body weight. You may not have heard of diabulimia.

According to research published in the British Medical Journal, women with type 1 diabetes are 2.4 times more likely to develop an eating disorder than their non-diabetic peers.

Diabulimia is a frightening condition that describes teens and young adults who skip or restrict insulin (the medicine they take to control their blood sugar) so that they can lose weight.

That's right. If teens don't take their insulin they lose weight — which on the surface can seem like a great option in our image driven society. What the person skipping insulin doesn't realize is that this gives them higher blood glucose levels and which places them at greater risk for developing long-term complications of the disease.

Because teens often don't worry about the future, this is an example of how important it is to have proper education.