Medical implications of a zero dress size

ZERO HEALTH: Doctors warn eating disorders can also at times be psychiatric disorders.

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Top Headlines

Top Videos

Most Popular

• FM tunes Budget for taxpayers, mkts face the music 

• Udayan's View: Budget 2009, a game of patience 

• A study in comparison: Education budget up Rs 7K cr 

• Reform hopes dashed, market watchers feel let down  

• I-T exemption limit raised | FBT rolled back | Taxes and you 

• Pranab skips two paras of Budget speech, apologises 

• Bengal benefits, Mamata and Pranab budget for their state 

• Common man gets a treat, over 15 schemes | For women 

• Income tax limits raised; farmers, exporters get sops 

• Health budget up by Rs 4,000 cr, 6 new AIIMS in cities 

• Budget: Pranab's chance to create his own legacy 

• Mayawati's statues face heat from Environment Ministry 

• Budget to focus on social spend, growth 

• Education reform will be for all Indians: Sibal 

• The Budget That Isn't: Cyrus gears up for Budget 

• EVMs are tamper proof, says Election Commission 

• Watch: Railway exams disrupted in Mysore, Banglaore 

• Watch: Maneka writes to PM over threat to Varun's life 

• One-upmanship: Sonia, Pawar in foodgrain politics 

• Actress pens play on gays who helped her find life 

• Pranab focuses on rural India, hikes I-T limit 

• Income tax limits raised; farmers, exporters get sops 

• I-T exemption limit raised 

• Fringe Benefit Tax rolled back 

• Tax structure to be simplified: Mukherjee 

• Buy that big car: SUVs, petrol trucks to cost less 

• MJ was dating his kids' nanny: photographer 

• Life saving drugs, LCDs cheaper; Set-top-box costlier 

• Minimum Rs 30 lakh needed to be called wealthy 

• Defence budget unchanged; Army gets lion's share 

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

New Delhi: Size Zero — that's a 22-inch waist a lot of young girls aspire for. But the size-zero obsession can have severe medical and psychological implications. It can force women into extreme diets followed by periods of bingeing on junk food.

On the other hand, it can lead to controlling body weight through purging, vomiting, excessive exercise or even diet pills or diuretic drugs.

“A person may suffer from irregular periods or reduced sexual potency,” Dr Monica Mahajan explains the medical implications of an extreme diet.

Girls most susceptible to fall for the size zero fad are ones who have a low self-image. They are likely to be weight conscious already and sometimes even borderline anorexic or bulimic. They believe that being thin will make them happier. Not necessarily correct.

There are many reasons why girls are trying to get to a size zero.

We know problems like eating disorders are not purely eating disorders; they are psychiatric conditions. So there might be something dynamic happening in their family like a parental conflict, or something similar, which is leading them towards such disorders,” Psychiatrist Arpita Anand explains.

And teenagers are most impressionable as their role models are endorsing a size zero.

Kareena Kapoor's size zero might get her plump assignments but it certainly is sending out a wrong message to all the young girls out there, who in their aspiration to look like her might starve themselves, ending up with serious medical implications.