The main consequence of malnutrition is reduced physical growth and lower intellectual performance in children. This happens because extreme thinness reduces the height that the child could reach in adulthood, and hinders his learning, memory and reasoning.
Malnutrition occurs due to a chronic lack of calories and nutrients in the body, which can be either due to the lack of food or the inability to eat properly, as is the case with serious diseases such as cancer.
Thus, its main consequences are:
- Severe weight loss; Poor growth; Low immunity, favoring the appearance of diseases; Anemia; Difficulty in healing wounds; Fragile skin, hair and nails; Most visible wrinkles; Intestinal malfunction; Delayed intellectual development in children; Infertility.
In addition, in the most severe cases, malnutrition can end up leading to death.
Risk Groups
The main group that is at risk for malnutrition are babies, especially when the mother does not breastfeed her child adequately or when the baby does not consume milk adequately for her age, and children up to 5 years old, when it depends entirely on adult care to feed itself.
In addition, the elderly and people with anorexia or other serious illnesses, such as cancer and heart failure, are also more likely to become malnourished, as they are usually unable to consume the necessary amount of food per day.
How to treat
The treatment of malnutrition is carried out with the assistance of a doctor and nutritionist and varies according to the cause of the problem, as the solution is not always just to eat in greater quantity. In the case of people with anorexia, for example, medical and psychological monitoring is also necessary to resolve the eating disorder that causes thinness.
In cases of cancer and other serious illnesses, it may be necessary to use dietary supplements or alternative feeding options, such as the use of a nasogastric tube or parenteral feeding, which is done only in the hospital. See more about treating malnutrition.
