Diseases resulting from malnutrition

The relationship between food and health is clear and certain. Food is necessary for a person’s life, growth, vitality, activity, and resistance to many diseases to which he is exposed.

Food may also be the cause of some diseases as a result of its imbalance, lack of cleanliness, and exposure to chemical contamination and radiation.

The relationship between malnutrition and various diseases:

People get sick as a result of:

*For a deficiency or excess of one or more nutrients in daily food. (malnutrition diseases)

*Food contamination with germs and microbes (infectious diseases)

*Contamination of food with chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides for plants, and medicinal drugs for animals, as well as the result of food contamination with industrial waste and radioactive isotopes (food and environmental pollution)

*The body reacts against some substances in food, known as allergic diseases.

Some malnutrition diseases:

Anemia: It results from a deficiency of iron or vitamin B12.

Symptoms: pale skin, general weakness, extreme fatigue, and loss of appetite. Pale, dull, flattened or blackened nails.

Protein deficiency diseases in children, or kwashiorkor: They appear (from 6 months to 12 months) due to not giving the child some foods that supplement breast milk, such as egg yolks, yogurt, meat, chicken meat, and fish.

Its symptoms: hair color changes and its tendency to redden and fall out, as well as skin inflammation, liver enlargement, and abdominal bloating.

Rickets: It results from a deficiency of calcium and vitamin D. Calcium is one of the important minerals for the body and is one of the components of breast milk. We can get it from dairy products, fish, and some vegetables, grains, and legumes.

It is also recommended that the child be exposed to sunlight between 8 and 10 in the morning as a source of vitamin D.

Pellagra: a non-contagious disease resulting from nutritional deficiency and not a genetic disease

Rather, it is due to a deficiency in vitamins, and it usually affects the poor or those whose diet lacks the completeness and comprehensiveness of nutrients, especially niacin deficiency. Vitamin B5 is the most important vitamin that prevents pellagra.

It is characterized by the appearance of a dry, scaly rash with clear boundaries on areas exposed to the sun.

It is characterized by neurological manifestations and mental retardation

Obvious symptoms:

Symptoms and signs:

1. Skin symptoms: Skin symptoms appear in the form of dryness and roughness, with red spots similar to sunburn on the hands and feet and around the neck and face, which later turn into brown crusts, leaving the skin discolored and blackened with cracks and inflammation on the sides of the mouth and lips.

2. Intestinal symptoms: They are represented by repeated diarrhea and frequent vomiting, which leads to loss of appetite and abdominal pain, followed by inflammation and ulcers in the mouth and tongue.

3. Neurological symptoms: As the disease progresses, nerve infections occur along with delirium, depression, excessive forgetfulness, and indifference.

Obesity: One of the most dangerous diseases to human health because fat causes blockages in the arteries of the heart or brain.

Diabetes: It may be a hereditary disease, but it is often acquired due to weight gain and excessive obesity.

short stature –

Just as malnutrition causes anemia, it also affects the physical growth process of children

Emaciation-

Wasting disease or Marasmus cough results from a chronic and severe deficiency in calories and dietary proteins. The body loses the proteins and fats it contains, even subcutaneous fat, and the child remains merely a skeleton of bones covered with skin, and his resistance collapses if he dies quickly. He did not receive treatment. For diseases

The role of nutrition in preventing and treating various diseases:

Malnutrition and children suffering from various diseases may lead to delayed physical and mental development. Therefore, feeding children with appropriate foods, especially during illness and during recovery periods, prevents delays in growth, increases vitality and activity, and reduces the period of illness.

Hence, the role of nutrition in prevention and treatment becomes clear to us. Complete and appropriate food is of particular importance in maintaining and protecting the human health level. It is the primary or only treatment in some sick cases, such as treating anemia, protein deficiency, obesity, thinness, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. Therefore, I advise following a medical diet in which we eat all foods in a specific system to achieve a healthy and balanced body.