Description
It’s a trend that Adolescent Medicine Physician Dr. Lance Nelson has noticed since the pandemic... “We've seen a significant rise in disordered eating, which is really sad.”
Malnutrition can affect every system in the body. “You can get brain fog. You can have heart issues. You can have cognitions. You can have kidney disease. You can have issues with your skin, your hair, your nails, loss of periods, and energy levels,” said Dr. Nelson.
Eating disorders take different forms. “You have classic Anorexia, which is restriction of intake or over exercise. There is Bulimia where patients eat a large amount of food in a short period of time and then make themselves sick or compensate. There's a new one called ARFID, Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. Those are really picky eaters or patients that had a choking episode and then stop eating. We also care for binge eating where patients that eat a large amount of food and maybe don't have that compensation piece,” said Dr. Nelson.
All of it is rooted in body dysmorphia. “Patients either see themselves as a higher weight or a larger body than what we see. Then they have an unhealthy relationship with food.”
Adolescent Medicine Physicians work with patients to help restore their weight and confidence. “We provide medical care. We provide therapy, and we also have nutritional support, for families and trying to keep it local, so families don't have to travel two hours to Tampa or Miami,” said Dr. Nelson. Helping teens heal physically and emotionally.
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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.
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