2024-01-25 17:18:45
Oman- The impact of malnutrition on humans is significant, as it results in deterioration in public health and the occurrence of multiple diseases. What are malnutrition and the diseases resulting from it, and how can they be treated?
What is malnutrition?
Internal medicine specialist Dr. Firas Al-Tarawneh explains that malnutrition results either from an increase in the body’s intake of energy contents and nutrients, or a lack of supply to the body, or an imbalance between the basic components of the energy inputs and inputs that enter the human body, and therefore it is reflected either in The form of weight loss or lack of proportionality between weight and height, and this is called wasting.
He added, in his speech to Al Jazeera Net, that malnutrition may also result from weight gain and the resulting metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Weight gain and an increase in body mass rate result in an inevitable result over a certain period of time: diabetes, high blood pressure, or high fat and cholesterol. In the blood, they eventually meet, forming heart disease.
There is another condition that falls between these two categories, according to Al-Tarawneh, which suffers from an imbalance in nutritional levels, such as a deficiency in some vitamins, and a lack of vital factors and salts that constitute an essential nutritional source for the processes of construction and destruction, and it is called the body’s metabolism process.
Malnutrition has many different causes, as Dr. Tarawneh mentioned, including:
- Increased amounts of saturated fats and carbohydrates will lead to an imbalance in the diet.
- Deficiency of certain vitamins but not others.
- Psychological disorders that may cause a person to eat non-nutritious or unhelpful food.
Diagnosis
Dr. Tarawneh explains that there is a wide range of causes that may lead to cases of malnutrition, so diagnosing cases of malnutrition is very slow, and requires a period of time and considerable experience, through the treating doctors, to determine the cause.
He continued that when providing medical or therapeutic services to a patient who suffers from unexplained anemia, a lack of iron stores in the body, or a lack of vitamins in very large quantities, this may be the first indicator that there are problems in absorbing these contents, and this may lead to research. Laboratory tests and gastrointestinal endoscopy are performed to search for a group of underlying diseases.
Groups vulnerable to malnutrition
Dr. Tarawneh points out that all age groups, both genders, are vulnerable to malnutrition. Likewise, poor areas in developing countries are among the largest groups exposed to malnutrition. Also, in developed countries, there are some psychological disorders or psychological diseases that may lead to malnutrition.
Dr. Tarawneh stresses that before treating patients with malnutrition, the cause must be identified, whether it is a hidden digestive system disease, pancreatic dysfunction, or kidney or liver dysfunction, then the causing disease can be corrected through possible drug treatments.
However, if the problem of malnutrition is the result of an allergy to a specific food substance, the main pyramid in treating this problem is to avoid the triggers or food substances that cause this allergy as much as possible.
Regarding psychological disorders, he pointed out that this item falls within the psychiatrist’s treatment of these cases, as internal medicine, gastroenterology, or psychiatric doctors are responsible for diagnosing cases of malnutrition, whether deficiency, excess, or imbalance, in addition to treating them following they are diagnosed.
Dr. Tarawneh pointed out that if the treatments are not medicinal, and the problem is the lack of access to appropriate food in cases of poverty or war, then a balanced diet must be provided and an attempt must be made to maintain not small amounts of carbohydrates, represented by bread, sugar, potatoes, and others.
He considered that in the case of malnutrition resulting from overweight or obesity and its consequences, the solution is through eating a balanced diet, reducing carbohydrate content, exercising, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Malnutrition and vitamin deficiency
Fadia Eid, an expert in the field of nutrition and dietetics, points out that one form of malnutrition is a deficiency in vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, folic acid, or iron, which leads to anemia, protein deficiency, or wasting resulting from Calorie deficiency in children. She added that obesity is also considered a type of malnutrition.
Fadia considered that dealing with people suffering from malnutrition as a result of vitamin deficiency is by taking the necessary supplements.
Engineer Fadia explains that children suffering from malnutrition can increase the number of diseases they have, as well as increase the duration and duration of the disease. There are cases that may lead to delayed growth or stunting, as well as complications resulting from not eating sufficient quantities of foods or some nutritional components necessary for the growth and development of children. Whether mental or physical.
Healthy foods to prevent malnutrition
Engineer Fadia calls on people to eat a balanced diet that contains all nutrients or food groups, such as eating sufficient amounts of milk, vegetables, and fruits, in addition to whole grains and protein, whether meat, eggs, legumes, or fish.
She cautioned that a person may need to take nutritional supplements, in addition to following a healthy lifestyle, whether with a balanced diet, practicing physical activity, or managing psychological stress.
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