Today, anorexia is regarded as a mental illness and is treated as such. However, the authors of the article approach the problem differently by using the viewpoint that the mental symptoms of anorexia originate from the eating disorder and not vice versa; and they have achieved surprisingly good results.
In people suffering from anorexia, their stomach has shrunk to such a degree that they get full from eating very little food. In the treatment programme, they are gradually trained into eating larger and larger portions by means of a special computer programme. When they have eaten a meal, they are placed in a special hot room where the temperature can be up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) because their metabolism and thereby their body temperature is too low. In the hot room, the patients are to rest and the heat also relieves anxiety and helps them to relax. The efforts to get the patients to reduce their calorie expenditure goes as far as putting them into a wheel chair. In this way, the urge for physical activity that accompanies anorectics and usually contributes to their weight loss is subdued. By means of rules and support, the patients are helped back into leading normal lives; it might take a year or so, but even after 3 - 4 months, their eating habits have usually normalized.
Out of the 168 patients who were treated, 75% recovered using this programme.
However, the researchers do not take full credit, as they say that they have elaborated on the treatment that the British Court Physician, Sir William Gull, prescribed to patients with eating disorders more than a century ago. Actually, he also believed that anorexia originates from a mental illness, but he managed to get the patients to eat nutritious food, raised their body temperature, and tried to put a damper on their usually accompanying need for physical, calorie-burning activities.
Should the name of William Gull ring any bells, it might not be so strange as he is regarded by some "Ripperologists" as being identical to the serial killer Jack the Ripper; perhaps a deeply unjustified reputation, put that is another story....
