Anorexia Guide: Home Remedies, Causes and Symptoms

Anorexia is medically known as anorexia nervosa. It is eating disorder that mainly affects mainly girls or women. However, boys or men can also suffer from this disorder. It generally begins in the teenage years if it is not occurred due to any diseases. Anorexia can be simply defined as less appetite or sometimes disliking towards the food due to one or the other reason.

It is quite difficult to figure out how common this disorder is, but studies show that up to 1% of schoolgirls and female university students have anorexia nervosa. If this occurs due to any other diseases, it can happen to any age group irrespective of the gender.

Anorexia may not harm on the initial stages but eventually it can take up the body weight and then a person starts becoming lean and thin. Anorexia also makes person undernourished resulting in low immunity power.

Causes of Anorexia

Cultural pressures in order to look slim, trim and beautiful among others.
Psychological issues such as low self-esteem, feelings of ineffectiveness, depression, need for control, physical or sexual abuse etc.
Family environment such as ongoing quarrels between family members, irregularity of cooking or serving meals etc
Genetic factors
Life transitions such as beginning of the adolescence, breakup of a relationship, beginning of failing in school or at work, death of close person etc.
Perpetuating factors like symptoms of starvation, other people’s reaction to the weight loss and emotional needs fulfilled by self-control, virtue and will power to control body weight.

Home remedies for Anorexia

Having about 2-3 fresh oranges a day is extremely beneficial. One can eat them once in a day as a breakfast.

You can prepare one simple recipe as home remedy for anorexia - take 1 cup water and boil 2-3 cloves in it. Strain it and then add the juice of half lime to this and consume this twice a day, for 7 days.

Apples are another variety of fruit that is very useful home remedy for anorexia. Apples help the digestion by stimulating the flow of pepsin, which is a protein-digesting enzyme present in the stomach.

Garlic also has a special property to stimulate the digestive system of the body and can improve appetite. For this, a soup made from garlic can be of great help to a person suffering from anorexia. For the procedure, three or four cloves of raw garlic are boiled in a cupful of water. This soup can be enhanced with the juice of half a lemon and taken two times a day.

Another great home remedy is the use of ginger, which is valuable in treating loss of appetite. About 5 gm of this spice is grounded and licked with a little rock-salt once a day for the treatment of anorexia.

There are certain herbs that encourage eating or and are known to be appetite stimulants. These herbs include chamomile, marjoram, hawthorn, myrrh, gentian, wormwood, hops, sage, thyme, lavender, tarragon, yarrow, and centaury.

Horseradish is also a very good appetite stimulant and therefore can be good home remedy for treating anorexia.