Health Intuitive

Alternative Medicine News

Causes of Weight Loss

Weight loss can be the result of a lot of causes.  With the epidemic of obesity now plaguing not only the United States but the whole world as well, losing weight may be a welcomed outcome.  However, there are instances that weight loss can come unintentionally and sometimes inexplicably. Health problems like hypothyroidism and diarrhea can cause fluid retention but make the person look fluffy.

Some of the intentional methods of weight loss include:

Dieting – This includes following a dietary plan that strictly measures the calories in foods to make sure the person just eats the right amounts of calories to lose weight gradually. Dieting is an ideal way to lose weight but your meals should always include the six classes of food to make them fully packed with nutrients. The one thing you need to cut is the amount of carbohydrates you take in each day.

Exercise – There are several ways to exercise. You can exercise by simply walking briskly or you can avail of treadmill or elliptical machines to not only make slim but tone your muscles as well.  You can also swim or rock climb if that’s what you’re into to help your body expend those extra calories and keep from gaining weight. Yoga for weight loss can also be considered a weight loss exercise and practitioners of yoga swear to its effectiveness in helping them lose weight and maintain their ideal weight.

Weight loss pills – Many of these pills are weight loss supplements to help you stay sated even if you eat light meals. Some are pep pills to help you lose your appetite for food. Weight loss pills help a lot in preventing you from eating too much but they may have undesirable side effects in the body.

Surgery – This is the most expensive way to lose weight and one of the most dangerous too. Weight loss surgery is called bariatric surgery and is performed on patients who are classified as morbidly obese.  People with a body mass index of 40kg/m² and over who have unsuccessfully lost weight through exercise and diet are ideal candidates for this type of surgery.

Nutritional therapy – This therapy combines supplements, good diet and biochemistry to help the body stay in optimum health and help it lose weight.

Traditional Chinese Medicine – The ancient Chinese way to lose weight includes among others herbal medicine and acupuncture.  These techniques assist the body to help itself burn calories faster and help it also to suppress food cravings.

The unintentional causes of weight loss include:

Ulcerative colitis – A gastrointestinal condition that can damage the entire digestive tract system. One of the effects of this dysfunction is low intake and absorption of nutrients leading to weight loss.

Tuberculosis – A major respiratory condition caused by the tubercle bacilli bacteria. One of the effects of tuberculosis is nausea and loss of appetite leading to low intake of nutrients and therefore weight loss.

Peptic Ulcer – This is another form of gastrointestinal problem resulting from damage to the intestinal linings. This condition can cause pain during eating which prevents the person from eating enough foods leading to weight loss.

Parkinson’s disease – Parkinson’s disease affects the nervous system of the body.  This disease weakens the function of the gastrointestinal tract and can lead to the weakening of the sensory functions. Parkinson’s disease also causes nausea and appetite loss.  All these factors eventually lead to lose of weight.

Overactive thyroid or hyperthyroidism – Hyperthyroidism leads to an increase in your body’s metabolic activity that leads to rapid weight loss since the body gets to burn an inordinate amount of calories each day.

Hypercalcemia – One of the effects of too much calcium in the body is dehydration and loss of appetite as well as nausea and vomiting.  All these factors can lead to weight loss in a person.

AIDS or HIV – Some of the symptoms of HIV or AIDS is diarrhea. HIV or AIDS can lead to a so-called Wasting Syndrome which leads to loss of body and mass. Worse, the loss of body mass may mean the loss of muscle mass, not necessarily that of adipose or fatty mass.

Heart failure – Oftentimes the result of heart attacks and strokes is a massive loss in weight, if not in life.

Major depression – One of the classical symptoms of major depression is the lack of interest in foods. A severely depressed person often has no appetite for foods or for basically anything at all.

Dementia – It is still a mystery why dementia in older people can result in weight loss although researchers suspect it may come from problems in the hypothalamic system of the brain.

Crohn’s disease – This problem is characterized by inflammation of the disgestive system leading to abdominal pain, loss of appetite, poor nutrient absorption and weight loss.

Cancer – Because cancer cells eat destroy the healthy cells as well, the cells that keep the body healthy slowly dies leading to loss in a cancer patient’s weight.

Addison’s disease – This disorder is due to the low production of hormones by the adrenal glands. It can lead to appetite loss, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting leading to a person’s weight loss.

Parasitic disease – Longstanding parasitic disease can lead to incredible malnourishment of the body including massive weight loss.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

COMMENTS