Symptoms of malnutrition include weight and muscle loss, a weakened immune system, falls and hair loss. Treatment involves ensuring the person's diet contains enough energy, protein, vitamins and minerals.
Malnutrition Warning Signs
Some common malnutrition signs and symptoms to look for include: Increased weight loss. Lack of muscle mass. Swollen stomach (called Kwashiorkor)
How is malnutrition diagnosed? Physical observation and a history of your diet and health conditions are often enough to diagnose protein-energy undernutrition or overnutrition. Healthcare providers may measure your BMI or measure a child's arm circumference to help understand the extent of the problem.
Skin may appear dry, and flaky and hair may turn dry, lifeless, dull and appear like straw. Nails may appear brittle and break easily. Some patients suffer from persistent diarrhea or long term constipation. Menstruation may be irregular or stop completely in malnourished women.
Signs and symptoms of malnutrition
a lack of interest in eating and drinking. feeling tired all the time. feeling weak. getting ill often and taking a long time to recover.
The most helpful laboratory studies in assessing malnutrition in a child are hematological studies and laboratory studies evaluating protein status: Hematological studies should include a CBC count with RBC indices and a peripheral smear.
Typical signs that you're not eating enough can include losing weight, feeling tired, getting ill more often, hair loss, or skin problems. In time, menstrual irregularities and depression may occur. Children may not grow as expected.
Weight loss due to depletion of fat and muscle mass, including organ mass, is often the most obvious sign of malnutrition. Muscle function declines before changes in muscle mass occur, suggesting that altered nutrient intake has an important impact independent of the effects on muscle mass.
Underweight - Weight is easy to measure; hence, this is the indicator for which most data have been collected in the past. The mortality risk is increased in children who are even mildly underweight, and the risk is even greater in severely underweight children.
In our study, the median recovery time from malnutrition was 5 months (95% CI = 4–5). The cumulative proportion of recovery was 0.6% at 2 months, 17.5% at 3 months, 49.5% and 78% at 5 and 6 months, respectively (Figure 2).
Dietary changes and supplements
having a healthier, more balanced diet. eating "fortified" foods that contain extra nutrients. snacking between meals. having drinks that contain lots of calories.
For most people, there are no serious dangers involved in eating one meal a day, other than the discomforts of feeling hungry. That said, there are some risks for people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Eating one meal a day can increase your blood pressure and cholesterol.
Calories are important because they provide energy for your body's daily functions such as breathing, thinking and moving around. Symptoms of not eating enough can start with a general feeling of low energy and fatigue.
Blood tests can be used to evaluate a person's nutritional status, measuring the amounts of essential nutrients in the body to detect nutritional deficits, including vitamin deficiency.
The signs are not always obvious. “Malnutrition can go unnoticed in people who are at a normal weight or overweight.
Inadequate intake of protein and energy results in proportional loss of skeletal and myocardial muscle. As myocardial mass decreases, so does the ability to generate cardiac output; however, various compensatory factors come into play.