Xylophagy is the habit of eating wood regularly. It does not sound strange if we think that today there are several animals that include wood as an essential ingredient in their diet: the panda bear, the joke mollusk, xylophagous insects such as the wood wasp, termites, the fir beetle, etc. .
The problem is that it is not only a practice carried out by animals; also some people often feel an irrepressible desire to ingest this material: an addiction that must be treated by experts. Furthermore, those who suffer from it also enjoy eating paper and pencils , as they are derived from wood.
This disorder is directly related to PICA , a syndrome that consists of eating things that do not report calories, such as dirt, paint, mud, cement, hairballs, etc.
Among those most at risk of suffering from PICA, people with epilepsy, psychopathy or some kind of brain damage stand out. It also tends to occur in young children, especially those with autism problems.
According to specialists, there is no specific treatment for xylophagia or the other disorders covered by PICA. What can work is giving drugs to control stress and depression, nutritional supplements, or undergoing therapies with a psychologist who is expert in these types of behaviors and behaviors.
As wood is ultimately an inedible substance, people who eat it frequently can end up suffering damage to their body: food anemias, parasitic infections, perforations in the digestive system, intestinal blockage or constipation .
