Eating disorders can eat away your body

By Priyam Vora

Eating disorders take an enormous toll on your body – not only draining weight but impacting the bones, heart and other organs.  Between 5 to 20 percent of people who develop the disease eventually die from it, according to WebMD.

Animation by Next Media. Scripting and video production by Priyam Vora/Medill

“Eating disorders can cause a host of serious physical consequences. The body is starved of essential nutrients that it needs to function, the digestive system is upset. All this could lead to serious heart and other major organ malfunctions,” said Maria Rago, clinical director of the eating disorders program at Linden Oaks Hospital in Naperville.

What happens exactly? Here’s a look at what an eating disorder does to a human body.

Photo at top: Flickr/Jeanette Goodrich