anybody tell me anything more about pica?

Question

can you give examples of brain issues that may have brought this on and how do they affect you in adulthood? does it lead to anything in old age?

Answer 1

Pica is an eating disorder manifested by craving to ingest any material not normally considered as food, including starch, clay, ashes, toy balloons, crayons, cotton, grass, cigarette butts, soap twigs, wood. paper. metal, or plaster. This condition is seen in pregnancy. chlorosis, hysteria, and certain psychoses. It may also be associated with iron deficiency anemia. The importance of this condition is, the etiology of which is unknown, stems from the toxicity of ingested materials in place of essential nutrients.

Answer 2

Pica is an appetite for non-foods (e.g., coal, soil, chalk, paper etc.) or an abnormal appetite for some things that may be considered foods, such as food ingredients (e.g., flour, raw potato, starch). In order for these actions to be considered pica, they must persist for more than one month, at an age where eating dirt, clay, etc., is considered developmentally inappropriate. The condition's name comes from the Latin word for the magpie, a bird which is reputed to eat almost anything. Pica is seen in all ages, particularly in pregnant women and small children, especially among children who are developmentally disabled where it is the most common eating disorder.

Research that has been done on the development of Pica suggest that the majority of patients that have Pica tend to suffer some biochemical deficiency and more often iron deficiency.

Often what the person with Pica eats does not contain the mineral they are deficient of. In many people where a biochemical deficiency is the case, Pica is not discovered until the deficiency is addressed. In these cases patients are treated for the deficiency and the Pica is usually resolved. However, if Pica is discovered before any deficiency, the person is usually improperly diagnosed with a mental disorder. If the deficiency continues to go unnoticed it can become severe if the root of the deficiency is a disease or internal problem.

Answer 3

I craved to eat coal for most of my childhood and thought I was peculiar - after investigating this I found a name for it PICA and it is my personal belief that this represents a lack of vitamins, minerals or something odd in ones diet and nutrition. In my case it was lack of "iron" and no doctor has told me different. My theory would explain the cravings of pregnant women whose stores of minerals etc., are being depleted. I still crave foods which give me vit. C for example. Fish is something else I crave now and then. I crave sugar when I am tired and so it goes on. In a way I consider this a warning that I am not eating properly.
No injury or brain problems.

Answer 4

Pica is the body's response to a lack of proper minerals in the diet. Supplement the diet properly, pica goes away.

Answer 5

i thought pica when your body craves minerals and nutrients you can't eat espically in pregnancy i has mud/soil pica, i also had washing powder i am not sure if they affect you later on in life i wouldn't thought so as the affects would be quite soon.

Answer 6

pica 1 |ˈpÄ«kə| noun Printing a unit of type size and line length equal to 12 points (about1/6inch or 4.2 mm). • a size of letter in typewriting, with 10 characters to the inch (about 3.9 to the centimeter). ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Anglo-Latin pica (literally ‘magpie’ ), commonly identified with a 15th-cent. book of rules about ecclesiastical feasts, but no edition of such a pica printed in “pica” type is known.