What happens to a cachectic individual?
Lack of nutrition deprives individual cells of the carbohydrates, fatty acids, and amino acids, the building blocks for complex sugars, fats and proteins, respectively, that cells need to survive. The body senses this deficiency and begins to degrade healthy tissue for sources of energy. The degradation of healthy tissue is responsible for loss of lean body and muscle mass. Often, the body’s consumption of energy is also increased. In other words, the body’s metabolic rate, even at rest, is significantly higher. Exactly how these metabolic changes occur is not completely understood. These changes are thought to be responsible for the patient’s inability to gain weight even when caloric intake seems to be adequate. Drastic weight loss is an independent risk factor for poor survival. Cachectic patients have worse outcomes with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Cachexia is also an under recognized cause for distress and anxiety among patients and their family members as changes
