Bulimia nervosa, like anorexia nervosa, is an eating disorder that centers around control. One of the most common eating disorders, bulimia is characterized by consuming large amounts of food and then ridding the stomach of its contents by way of vomiting, over-exercising, or use of laxatives.

Eating to excess (called the "binge") is comforting to bulimics. But eating too much causes them to feel out of control. They also feel guilt, shame, and a fear of weight gain which causes them to "purge." This "binge and purge" cycle is extremely dangerous and can lead to serious and long-term health problems, like tooth decay, gum disease, loss of tooth enamel, osteoporosis, kidney damage, heart problems, and even death.

Because bulimia is harder to recognize than anorexia -- the symptoms are more subtle and bulimics are not always thin -- awareness is critical. Please consider these symptoms and physical effects of bulimia.

Source

Some of us sleep up to a third of our life away, which seems wasteful to many. It isn't, and a new study out of the UK says that too little sleep -- and even too much of it -- can double the risk of death from heart disease.

Yikes -- sounds serious, right? It's pretty well known that those of us not getting enough sleep see a marked decrease in how alert and productive we are when awake. But, heart disease?

The study involved 10,000 participants and looked at the amount of sleep each received correlated against the mortality rare of the group after adjusting for all kinds of factors, like age, race and sex. Conclusion: get in your required seven hours of sleep every day.

Source