Excessive And Unexplained Weight Loss: Its Causes And Symptoms

Excessive And Unexplained Weight Loss: Its Causes And Symptoms . An unexplained excessive weight loss is clinically a significant event, provided the person has not attempted to reduce his or her weight through diet control and exercise. More than 10% of decrease in the body weight of an individual is an alarming symptom and requires medical attention. It indicates of something wrong within your body.

Loss of weight occurs, either due to excessive loss of fluid from the body, or due to loss of tissue mass. An excessive loss of weight in medical language is called cachexia. Weight loss as a symptom can be caused due to many diseases and conditions.

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It can be due to a trivial reason such as mouth sore or it can be due to other major diseases such as tuberculosis, AIDS, cancer, missing teeth, thyroid diseases, chronic diarrhea etc.

It can be also caused due to dementia where the person has loss of appetite, or due to anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder. An extreme degree of weight loss is dangerous for a person’s health; it can affect various vital organs of the body and may sometimes lead to untimely death. Looking at the above facts it is important to seek medical attention, and get investigated as soon as possible if there is excessive weight loss.

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Causes Of Unexplained Weight Loss

Conditions which produce loss of weight as one of its prominent symptoms are as follows:

Chronic infections:

• Tuberculosis
• Amoebic liver abscess
• Deep fungal infection
• Intestinal and liver parasites
• Infective endocarditis
• Chronic congestive cardiac failure

Caloric malnutrition:

• Marasmus and protein energy malnutrition.
• Poverty, inadequate nutritional knowledge, inaccessibility to food.

Malignancies:

• Stomach cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Highly malignant tumor in any part of the body.

Gastrointestinal causes:

• Cancer in any part of stomach
• Chronic diarrhea
• Ulcerative colitis
• Celiac disease
• Peptic ulcer
• Biliary tract obstruction
• Irritable bowel syndrome

Endocrine causes for excessive weight loss:

• Uncontrolled Diabetes mellitus
• Type 1 diabetes
• Thyrotoxicosis, hyperthyroidism
• Addison’s disease (underactive adrenal glands)
• Panhypopituitarism
• Hyperparathyroidism

Collagen vascular disorder:

• SLE
• Polyarthritis nodosa
• Ankylosing spondylosis

Immuno-compromised conditions:

• HIV/AIDS
• Post renal transplant

Drugs:

• Digitalis
• Diuretics
• Hypoglycemic
• Cytotoxins
• Sucralfate
• Antiarrhythmics

Other causes:

• Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse
• Anorexia nervosa (eating disorder)
• Depression
• Malnutrition
• Infection

Symptoms Of Excessive Weight Loss

The first step for evaluating is to have an objective evidence of excessive loss of weight in a person. Mere visual comparison or change in the facial contour can be misleading. It is important to note the actual weight loss and the period of time over which it has occurred.

As weight loss is a symptom of an underlying disease, it can also have other accompanying symptoms of that disease which can differentiate one disease from another, as follows:

• Malnutrition: Loss of weight with history of poor intake of dietary calories.
• Tuberculosis: Excessive loss of weight with low grade fever and loss of appetite.
• Malignancy: Excessive weight loss with loss of appetite, low grade fever, lymph node swelling, abdominal pain in case of stomach and pancreatic cancer, bone and joint pains.
• Steatorrhea: Loss of weight associated with large bulky stools. It can be due to ulcerative colitis, history of blood and mucus in stool frequently with semi solid stool.
• Thyrotoxicosis: Decrease in weight, in spite of normal or increased appetite. Jerks and tremors in hands and palpitation, protruded eyeballs, swelling in the throat are some of its symptoms associated with weight loss in thyrotoxicosis.
• Diabetes: Increased thirst, increased urination and increased hunger along with excessive weight loss suggest uncontrolled diabetes.
• Anorexia nervosa: Severe weight loss occurring in girls under the age of 25 without any signs of other disease is typical of anorexia nervosa. Amenorrhea and induced vomiting are other features of anorexia nervosa.
• AIDS: Large volume watery diarrhea, abdominal pain, mild vomiting, excessive weight loss, and associated various infections hint to investigate for HIV and AIDS.