America 1980-1989: Medicine and Health Research Article from American Decades

This Study Guide consists of approximately 103 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of America 1980-1989.
Encyclopedia Article

America 1980-1989: Medicine and Health Research Article from American Decades

This Study Guide consists of approximately 103 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of America 1980-1989.
This section contains 419 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the America 1980-1989: Medicine and Health Encyclopedia Article

The "Disease of Abundance."

When Karen Carpenter, a member of the popular singing duo The Carpenters, read a review that called her "chubby," she began an eight-year obsession with her weight. By 1983, when she died from heart failure from emetine poisoning brought on by taking ipecac to induce vomiting, anorexia and bulimia had become household words. American society was obsessed with dieting, and these puzzling and frustrating disorders were extreme examples of the national obsession with weight and appearance.

Anorexia Nervosa.

Anorexia was a form of extreme self-starvation and distortion of body image. Patients refused food until they reached a point of severe emaciation or even death. Even though looking in a mirror should tell them that they were too thin, they persisted in seeing themselves as too fat and were proud of their control over food. The term anorexia which means "lack of...

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This section contains 419 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the America 1980-1989: Medicine and Health Encyclopedia Article
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America 1980-1989: Medicine and Health from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.