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Eating disorders in athletes essay
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According to the Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review’s article on the female athlete triad, in the past forty years, American women have become increasingly involved in athletics as a result of laws allowing them to participate in sports. (Lebrun and Rumball) For instance, Cathy Rigby won eight Olympic gold medals in gymnastics during the ‘60’s and 70’s when these laws were just coming into effect. (Brunet) Nevertheless, there is an ugly hidden underbelly to the many benefits of women’s increased participation in sports. Many sports have very high standards for body image, which has led to the increasing prevalence of three “separate… but interrelated conditions” collectively known as the female athlete triad. (Lebrun and Rumball) Despite Cathy Rigby’s aforementioned success, an article by Dr. Michael Brunet reveals that she was severely affected by the most well-known of the female athlete triad: the eating disorder. This eventually caused her to suffer cardiac arrest twice. (Brunet) These effects are not limited to elite athletes, however; high school athletes are also affected by the triad, particularly those participating in sports “in which leanness is perceived to optimize performance” or which use “specific weight categories.” (Lebrun) The three components of the triad, osteoporosis, amenorrhea, and disordered eating, are increasingly becoming an unfortunate effect of distorted body image on sports.
Disordered eating, probably one of the more well-known components of the disorder, is frequently caused by the habitually distorted ideal body image prevalent in many sports. It is most often seen in sports where weight is a factor. This includes sports that are “subjectively scored” like figure skating, those that...
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...n subclinical eating disorders, which, as the name indicates, are not even official disorders. The most common subclinical eating disorder in female athletes is a simple energy deficit. An energy deficit occurs when a normal weight athlete eats fewer calories than she burns. These can also include eating snacks instead of meals and skipping meals. These subclinical eating disorders are also very difficult to treat
Works Cited
Brunet, Michael II. “Female Athlete Triad.” Clinics in Sports Medicine 24.3 (2005): 623-636.
Web. 2 February 2014.
Female Athlete Triad Coalition. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.
Lebrun, Constance M., Rumball Jane S. “Female Athlete Triad.” Sports Medicine and
Arthroscopy Review 10.1 (March 2002): 23-32. Web. 2 February 2014.
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Stress Fractures." Diseases and Conditions. Mayo Clinic, 24 Jan. 2014.
Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
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For so long, the Athletic Training profession has been dominated by men. In the article “Women in Athletic Training”, the author Marcia K. Anderson does a study that describes what the pioneer women of athletic training had to go through during a time of male dominance. Women entered the athletic training realm as the underlings and weren’t respected as athletic trainers. “The purpose of the study was to describe, from their perspectives, the early experiences of women . . .,” (Anderson 42) rather than building an argument on how she feels about the situation, she’s going to be the middle man and explain their stories. It’s important for an author to establish credibility or ethos because one word or sentence could either be the death or birth of his/her reputation. Ethos lets the reader know whether or not the author is trustworthy. Although Anderson does not have personal experience with breaking into the field, interviewing the thirteen pioneer women gives her credibility in some areas while taking away in others. There are some key aspects she leaves out that lessen her credibility throughout the article, such as, not having any athletic training experience to fall back on, the demographics of the women she interviews, and how she interviews the women.
Regardless of what sport an athlete is participating, once they reach a certain level there is an enormous amount of pressure. When an athlete is depriving himself or herself of food or making themselves puke after in taking food, they can start to go down a path of malnutrition, which will have a huge toll on their performance. Athlete’s battling eating disorders may experience symptoms such as anemia, muscle loss, osteoporosis, electrolyte imbalance, heart problems and hormone changes (Harms, 2012). A large majority of the time, when athletes are dropping weight they are going to end up developing problems such as fatigue, nutrient deficiencies and impaired growth which are only going ...
Even though Gelsey Kirkland was a graceful and amazingly fit dancer, George Balanchine, then director and choreographer of the New York City Ballet, approached her during a barre routine, pointed to her upper chest and whispered, "I want to see bones." At 5'4 and 100 lbs, she was already under weight for her height, so did she really need to lose more? Although shocked and appalled by her directors comment, she immediately put herself on a diet. By the end of the season she was down to 92 lbs, a virtual dancing skeleton. She kept this weight off for many years, sometimes by eating one apple a day, cut into fourths with an added spoonful of cottage cheese. Unfortuntately she didn't think about how this behavior would affect her in the future, all she cared about was the "then and now." The "little girl" body image is something that has plagued our young female athletes in the performance arts for a little over 40 years. Unfortunately, I feel the subject about changing our society's mind abou the "little girl" image is useless to write about. Dancers, gymnasts, and figure skaters are always going to have this image attached to them because it is what we want to see. We are not going to change the way people think, so it's time to try and find another solution. What can we do to possibly discourage these athletes from resorting to anorexia and bulimia?
The media can impact people’s lives in many ways, whether it’s fashion, movies, literature, or hobbies. One of the impacts is how women view their bodies. Movie stars and models feel pressured to catch attention and to look good in order to have a good career in their respective field. People tend to judge how someone looks based on their body composition. The result of this “judgment” is that Hollywood is getting skinny. Since models and actresses serve as role models for people, people tend to want to look like them. The result of this seemingly harmless model of behavior is in an increase in eating disorders.
Eating disorders in athletes do not fit neatly into anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, but rather a combination of both. In athletes, anorexia nervosa may often present itself as over-exercising rather than undereating. In the athletic population, it is difficult to define weight a weight loss criteria for an eating disorder dia...
It has taken many years for women to gain a semblance of equality in sports. Throughout history, women have been both excluded from playing sports and discriminated against in sports. Men’s sports have always dominated the college athletic field, but women were finally given a fighting chance after Title IX was passed. Title IX, among other things, requires scholarships to be equally proportioned between men and women’s sports. Although this was a huge gain for women, gender inequality still exists in sports today. An example of this persisting inequality can be seen when looking at men’s baseball and women’s softball. In college, baseball and softball are both major NCAA sports. It is widely accepted throughout today’s society that baseball is a man’s sport, and softball is a woman’s sport. Very few people question why the two sexes are separated into two different sports, or wonder why women play softball instead of baseball. Fewer people know that women have been essentially excluded from playing baseball for a long time. This paper will focus on why softball has not changed the way women’s basketball has, why women continue to play softball, the possibilities and dynamics of women playing baseball with and without men, and the most discriminating aspect of women being banned from playing professional baseball.
An eating disorder is characterized when eating, exercise and body image become an obsession that preoccupies someone’s life. There are a variety of eating disorders that can affect a person and are associated with different characteristics and causes. Most cases can be linked to low self esteem and an attempt to, “deal with underlying psychological issues through an unhealthy relationship with food” (“Eating Disorders and Adolescence,” 2013). Eating disorders typically develop during adolescence or early adulthood, with females being most vulner...
She has been called one of the best athletes ever, man or woman (Natta). In April 1950, Zaharias was diagnosed with cancer and had an operation, and doctors said she would not be able to return to sports “Three and a half months later, though, she played in competition [golf]. The next year she won the United States Women's Open by twelve strokes… Afterward, she shared her victory with her doctors and the thousands of cancer patients who had written to her and rooted for her” (Natta). She was inspiring to not just women, but also to the million of cancer patients around the world. She showed courage and dedication to everyone. She lived with sexism from women and men, but never lost who she was. She dealt with sexist reporters, golfers, and fans throughout her entire career. At one point in her
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