Anorexia nervosa, the illness in which young women who have been dieting strenuously become abnormally thin and unable to regain weight, often also causes profound calcium loss from the bones. This loss, which is noticeable in X-rays, often reveals that the victims have osteoporosis.

Interestingly, it was found that osteoporosis develops only in those anorexia nervosa patients who become inactive or who spend most of their time in bed. Others, who stay up and about and remain very active, have little bone thinning and no fractures. Physical inactivity, then, has much to do with the patient’s recovery, and bed rest, a treatment often prescribed for these women until now is to be no longer recommended.

Another cause of osteoporosis in these patients, according to the New England Journal of Medicine (311:1601), is a reduction in the amount of estrogen (feminizing hormone) produced by the emaciated women, because during the strenuous dieting their periods stop also. The Journal reports that by giving estrogen to restore their natural tissue levels of this hormone, one may help them to conserve calcium and the strength of their bones.

For more information on this disease, see the section on Anorexia Nervosa.

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