Reader\'s Digest Canada - 10.2019

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Statins May Help

Prevent Glaucoma

Research shows that

many patients who are

prescribed statins

don’t continue taking

them for the long run.

Sometimes, this is

because of misconcep-

tions about their risks

and benefits. A JAMA

Ophthalmology study

with over 130,000 par-

ticipants found an asso-

ciation between high

cholesterol and a

greater likelihood of

developing glaucoma,

possibly due to impaired

blood flow to the optic

nerve. However, the risk

was 21 per cent lower

among people who’d

used statins for five

years or longer. By itself,

glaucoma protection is

not sufficient reason to

start taking statins. But

if you’re already taking

them to cut your

chances of a heart

attack or stroke, then

knowing they might

spare you from eye

problems as well could

help motivate you to

stay the course.

Orthorexia Nervosa: Who’s at Risk?

Striving to eat healthily can, ironically, become an

unhealthy obsession. People with the condition

known as orthorexia nervosa are fixated on con-

suming food in a way that they consider “pure,”

“clean” or “healthy”— to the point where their

well-being suffers. They can, for example, become

malnourished. “That’s because as the disorder pro-

gresses, patients often become increasingly restric-

tive in what they’ll eat,” says Sarah McComb, a clini-

cal psychology student at York University in Toronto.

“Some cut out entire food groups or fats or carbs.”

Orthorexia isn’t yet listed in psychiatric manuals,

but it is described in scientific journals. McComb

and her supervisor, Jennifer Mills, recently pub-

lished a review of the research to date into the

possible risk factors. Those that were most reliably

associated with orthorexia included perfectionism,

dieting, obsessive-compulsive traits, mental health

struggles and poor body image. Interestingly, and

in contrast to many other eating disorders, gender

did not seem to affect risk.

Orthorexia warning signs include spending

many hours each day planning and preparing

meals, losing weight unin-

tentionally, eating habits

that interfere with your

personal relationships and

feeling distressed when

you don’t know exactly

how your meal was made

and what it contains. “If

you can check off a lot of

these things then it might

be a good time to talk to a

mental health profes-

sional,” McComb says.

reader’s digest

30 october 2019