That's men for you: What would you say is the average age of death for men from anorexia? Would you put it at 19 or so? And what is the average age of death for women from the same condition? About the same?
When researchers from the University of British Columbia studied more than 10 million records of deaths in the United States they came to the conclusion that the average age of death for men from anorexia was 80. The average for women was 69.
It is a pretty unexpected statistic given that we assume that anorexia and other eating disorders almost exclusively affect young women.
Among young people about 10 per cent of those with anorexia are men. But among the over-45s the proportion of men is about 21 per cent.
Anorexia in men can go undetected for longer than in women partly, perhaps, because of the assumption that it is a women's condition. And because women with anorexia can suffer disruption of their menstrual periods, this can alert doctors and friends to the possibility of self-starvation.
No such warning sign exists for men.
Both men and women tend to follow a pattern in developing anorexia: it begins with a diet but when they have achieved their target weight, the diet continues regardless.
Very often, they do not even realise they are underweight. They look in the mirror and they see an overweight person. The rest of the world sees somebody who is almost skeletal.
People with eating disorders often have other things wrong with their lives. An important relationship may have broken up for example. Or the children may have left home and a parent may feel he or she has lost purpose in life.
Starving themselves may give some people a sense of control. Indeed, control seems to be a key motivator for some anorexics. The more people try to cajole them into eating, the more they resist.
This may be a very old behaviour learned long ago. Think of a baby resisting all blandishments by parents anxious to get him to eat his food. Look at the control the baby has over the situation as the parents dance in attendance.
Indeed some counsellors would make it almost an article of religion not to get into arguments, however subtle, with people with eating disorders. They focus on helping the person to get other issues under control in the hope that they will no longer need to control the world through their eating.
Of course, for many people with eating disorders, dissatisfaction with their body image is what encourages them to starve themselves, beginning with an innocent diet. This motivation can certainly be at work in young people - but not only in them. Recent Austrian research suggests women in their 60s have the same attitudes and concerns about body image as young women. It may be that many men of that age group also have such concerns.
It is also possible to lose your appetite because of an illness or because of medication or for some other physical reason that may not be obvious at the time. That is why, if you find that you do not really feel like eating any more, you should at least pay a visit to your GP to find out if there is a medical or similar condition behind it.
If what is behind it is not a physical condition but a desire for control, then you might consider seeing a counsellor to work out how to exercise control in more satisfying ways.
As the years go on, some people may give up eating simply because they lose interest in life or lose hope for a better future.
Of course, most people retain a healthy interest in living right up to the end. But there is that minority of people who may feel that the reasons for living have gone and who simply stop eating.
Isn't that a sad reflection on human civilisation in the 21st century? And isn't it cruelly ironic that in the age of obesity, depriving ourselves of food has become the ultimate personal psychological weapon?
Padraig O'Morain is a journalist and counsellor accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.