Clinic helps deal with body image

People with eating disorders are obsessed with their appearance, but they have no clue what they really look like.

Psychologists at the Menninger Clinic in Houston say that 40 percent of people with eating disorders also have body dysmorphic disorder, which seriously skews their view of themselves.

Anorexics and bulimics spend more than 80 percent of their day fretting about their appearance, and it can be tough to change their warped view of themselves, researchers say.

The Menninger Eating Disorders Program has developed a 12-week program to help patients improve their body image. In therapy groups, patients get a reality check disputing their perceptions of their bodies. They also do exercises such as drawing an outline of how they think their bodies look and comparing that with an actual outline.

In another exercise, patients come up with a positive word to describe themselves, unrelated to how they look.

Sexualizing of women takes a mental toll

Media that sexualize young women can batter their self-image.

An American Psychological Association report found that sexualizing and objectifying girls and young women undermined confidence and is linked with eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem.

The APA task force defined sexualization as valuing a person only for her sex appeal or behavior. The panel looked at media including television, music videos and lyrics, magazines, movies, video games, the Internet and advertising of products aimed at girls.

The researchers found that pervasive sexualization of women leads to a wide array of emotional and mental-health problems and makes it difficult for them to develop a healthy sexual self-image. They called on parents and schools to be aware of the impact and to present girls in a positive light that shows their uniqueness and competence.

Kids likely to pick up pounds over summer

Summer break means weight gain for kids.

Researchers at Ohio State and Indiana University looked at body mass index measurements of 5,380 children in 310 schools. They found that kids gained more during summer break than during the school year.

The gains were highest among three subgroups at high risk for obesity: black children, Hispanic children and children who were already overweight at the beginning of kindergarten.

The study authors suggest that schools should focus on giving kids the tools they need to stay healthy during vacation months.

The study appears in the most recent American Journal of Public Health.

Black children suffer most from asthma

Asthma is a problem for any kid, but particularly for kids of color.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University looked at records from 7,726 white, black and Hispanic children admitted to Pennsylvania hospitals in 2001 for asthma symptoms. The researchers then ranked them either as "emergency" or "non-emergency" admissions.

They found that black children were more than twice as likely to have severe symptoms as other children. The study showed that children on Medicaid had more severe symptoms at admission than those who had private insurance - and two-thirds of black children had Medicaid or other public insurance.

Previous research has shown that in comparison with white and Hispanic children, blacks have a higher rate of asthma, are hospitalized more and face more disability due to the condition.

The study appears in the February Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.