I have a close friend who has just emerged from her first hospitalizition for anorexia. Now in the past 2 weeks, she has suddenly develop severe joint problems that appear to mimic arthritis. The docs are still unsure.

Has anyone heard of this being directly related to her ED?

any suggest resources for that connection?

I havent necessarily heard of such a thing as ED related "arthritis", but it completely makes sense for a few reasons. First, with anorexia (and many EDs) bone loss is very common, and is often irreversible. It is possible that your friend lost bone mass and this is causing discomfort between ligaments or whatnot. Second, muscle is also depleted with anorexia, as is pretty much everything your body NEEDS to survive. So anything like muscle,ligaments, tendants, etc, could be depleted (even with weight gain) and this could cause rubbing of the bones or excess air between joints, etc.

Hi,

I was also in the hosp. several times when I was younger because of my ED. I am not sure how long your friend has been doing this but at the time I was in the hosp. it was roughly a year or two after I began, on through 4-5 years.

Now, I have been in recovery for 6 years, I am only 32 but I can tell you that I am of "normal weight" according to the dr. and I have severe joint pain - some days being much better than others but many are bad.

It does lead to bone loss - among othjer things, I have constant stomach problems, I have had to spend over 7,ooo. getting my teeth back to normal and I am still not able to tell you that after 6 years in recovery that tonight, tomorrow or whenever, that i will fall.

You are a great friend, don't give up on her and stay like you are- she needs you and she will need you forever!
Caytie

Hi!

I'm glad your friend got some help. Maybe she could use more? I remember that at my lower weights (I'm at a so-called "normal" weight now, due to treatment) I had severe joint pain, to the point where I would take painkillers. It hurt to walk. It hurt to kneel. It hurt to do pretty much anything. I wish that I could tell you what to do, but I never really found anything that alleviated it.

Bjork

i'll let her know.

thanks for the input though, it's good to know that this is not necessarily some random out of the blue unrelated problem.