Number of women over 30 with eating disorders is increasing

Women age 30 and older in the U.S. are increasingly developing eating disorders. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, ten million women in the U.S. suffer from an eating disorder. Ten percent of women between ages 25 and 45 admitted to having an eating disorder during a recent online survey of 4,023 women given by SELF magazine and UNC Chapel Hill.

Some women have struggled with an eating disorder for most of their lives. Other women seem to acquire an eating disorder from a trigger, such as as a divorce, a spouse’s infidelity or a parent’s death. 

Many women feel extreme pressure to look younger as they age, and pressure from society for lifelong thinness is causing many women to acquire these disorders later in life. This can have a devastating effect on their families.

Unfortunately, medical complications of eating disorders seem to worsen as women age. Heart disease, osteoporosis, dental erosion and arthritis are just a few of the problems that are likely to develop. The intense pain of these conditions tend to cause many middle-aged women, unlike teenagers and younger women, to admit that they have an eating disorder and get help. About 20 percent of adult women overcome their eating disorder, but sadly, adolescents have only an 80 percent recovery rate. On the flip side, an astonishing 79 percent of anorexia deaths occur in people who are over the age of 45.