Emaciation Causes | Symptoms & Treatment

Emaciation is the condition in which a person suffers from severe nutritional deficiency, due to which the body becomes very lean, almost to the point of skin and bones. Emaciated people are extremely thin, and there is almost no observable fleshanywhere on the body. The emaciated body actually looks like someone who has been long tortured and kept away from food. 

Emaciation is usually followed by general anemia and a weakening of nearly all thefunctions of the body. The memory, sight, hearing, all become impaired, while the taste or appetite usually becomes keener or more sensitive. This is caused by irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach and the consequent presence of too much blood therein, the same as when intoxicating liquors are taken just before meals.

Causes of Emaciation (Under Weight)
 
There is only one cause of emaciation, and that is starvation. The following are the prime contributing factors towards starvation and hence, emaciation. Poverty is the most prevalent contributing factor for emaciation. Given that the greatest number of emaciated people is found in the developing and the underdeveloped countries, it is obvious that people living under the poverty belt are emaciated. This is because poor people simply do not have the money required to buy the requisite foods.
 
The busy urban life is also contributing to emaciation. People are just too busy to eat. Along with this, people have faulty eating timetables. Anorexia nervosa is the disorder in which a person is just too afraid of eating. This causes much of the malnutrition emaciation in the urban areas.
 
Certain forms of starvation are potentially easier to prevent because they arise not from lack of food access, but from eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. In the most severe cases, sufferers of these conditions become emaciated too, withweights that are considered well below normal. A diagnostic criterion on what precisely constitutes emaciation varies. It’s often defined as weight one half to one third less than expected normal body weight.
Symptoms of Emaciation
 
There are many symptoms of emaciation. Though all these symptoms indicate emaciation, all the symptoms may not occur together in a single person.
First and foremost is the bodily appearance of the person. There is a lot of muscle and tissue wasting and the body reduces to merely skin and bones. The ribs are clearly seen in the chest cavity.
Fatigue is very common. The person cannot do even the simplest activity without getting unduly tired.

Eyesight becomes weak in most cases. The eyes may also appear yellowish, as in jaundice, or reddened.

Skin pigmentation occurs in most cases. This is the reason why emaciated people appear darker than people on a healthy diet.
 
There are several infections that may appear on the skin. Eczema, rabies, etc. arecommon skin ailments found in emaciated people.
Treatment of Emaciation
Herbal treatments are the only solution to solve the problems of thinness (Emaciation).