Anorexia has an extremely high mortality rate. Some 10 to 15 percent of those hospitalized for the disorder ultimately die from it. When anorexics starve themselves, the body begins to autocannibalize, consuming first fatty tissue, then muscles and then vital organs. Anorexics grow a fine layer of hair all over as the body naturally struggles to retain heat. They lose sex drive and are susceptible to heart attacks.
Bulimics are susceptible to throat cancer and hemorrhaging from the repeated vomiting.
One popular misconception is that eating disorders are intrinsically modern afflictions, brought on by popular culture and the beauty myth. Certainly they contribute, but that's not the whole story, Lasser says. Her Web site documents the first known diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, published in the journal Lancet in 1888. Doctors tried feeding her pulverized food every four hours. In 10 months she died, weighing 49 pounds.