Oman- The impact of malnutrition on humans is significant, as it causes the deterioration of public health and the onset of multiple diseases. What are malnutrition and the diseases that result from it and how can they be treated?
What is malnutrition?
Internal medicine specialist Dr. Firas Al-Tarawneh explains that malnutrition results from an increase in the body’s supply of energy and nutrient contents, or a lack of supply to the body, or an imbalance between the basic components of energy inputs and the inputs that enter the human body, and therefore are reflected 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 can also result from weight gain and resulting metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Weight gain and increased body mass rate lead to an inevitable outcome after a certain period of time, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or high levels of fat and cholesterol, which eventually meet in the blood 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 of certain vitamins and a lack of vital factors and salts that constitute an essential nutritional source for the construction and destruction processes, and is called the body’s metabolic process.
Malnutrition has many different causes, as Dr. Tarawneh mentioned, including:
- An increased amount of saturated fats and carbohydrates will lead to an imbalance in the diet.
- Deficiency of some vitamins but not others.
- Psychological disorders that can cause a person to eat non-nutritious or useless food.
Diagnosis
Dr. Tarawneh explains that there is a wide range of causes that can lead to cases of malnutrition, so the diagnosis of malnutrition cases is very slow and requires a period of time and considerable expertise, through the treating doctors, to determine the cause .
He went on to say that when providing medical or therapeutic services to a patient suffering from unexplained anemia, lack of iron stores in the body, or vitamin deficiency in large quantities, this may be the first indicator that there are problems with absorption. of these contents and this can lead to searches. Laboratory tests and gastrointestinal endoscopy are performed to look 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 of developing countries are among the groups most exposed to malnutrition. Furthermore, in developed countries, there are some psychological disorders or psychological diseases that can lead to malnutrition.
Dr. Tarawneh emphasizes that before treating patients suffering from malnutrition, it is necessary to identify the cause, whether it is a hidden disease of the digestive system, pancreatic dysfunction, or renal or liver dysfunction, then the causing disease can be corrected through possible treatments pharmacological.
However, if the problem of malnutrition is the result of an allergy to a specific food substance, the main pyramid in the treatment of this problem is to avoid as much as possible the triggers or food substances that cause this allergy.
Regarding psychological disorders, he underlined that this point falls within the treatment of these cases by the psychiatrist, since internal medicine, gastroenterology or psychiatrists have the task of diagnosing cases of malnutrition, be they deficiency, excess or imbalance , as well as treating them after they are diagnosed.
Dr. Tarawneh stressed that if the treatments are not medicinal, and the problem is the lack of access to adequate food in case of poverty or war, then one must provide a balanced diet and try to maintain no small quantities of food. carbohydrates, represented by bread, sugar, potatoes and others.
According to him, in case of malnutrition resulting from overweight or obesity and its consequences, the solution is to follow a balanced diet, reduce carbohydrate content, exercise and maintain 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 the deficiency of vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, folic acid or iron, which leads to anemia, protein deficiency or subsequent wasting. from calorie deficiency in children. She added that obesity is also considered a type of malnutrition.
Fadia believes that to treat people suffering from malnutrition due to vitamin deficiency it is necessary to take 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 diseases, with cases that can lead to growth retardation or stunting, as well as complications resulting from not eat sufficient quantities of foods or certain nutritional components necessary for the growth and development of children, both mental and physical.
Healthy foods to prevent malnutrition
Engineer Fadia urges people to eat a balanced diet that contains all nutrients or food groups, such as eating sufficient amounts of milk, vegetables and fruit, as well as whole grains and proteins, whether meat, eggs, legumes or fish.
He warned that a person may need to take nutritional supplements, in addition to following a healthy lifestyle, whether with a balanced diet, physical activity or psychological stress management.
2024-01-25 17:18:45
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