Malnutrition affects every system in the body and results in increased vulnerability to illness, increased complications and in extreme cases even death.
- Immune system
Reduced ability to fight infection - Muscles
- Inactivity and reduced ability to work, shop, cook and self-care
- Inactivity may also lead to pressure ulcers and blood clots
- Falls
- Reduced ability to cough may predispose to chest infections and pneumonia
- Heart failure
- Impaired wound healing
- Kidneys
- Inability to regulate salt and fluid can lead to over-hydration or dehydration
- Brain
- Malnutrition causes apathy, depression, introversion, self-neglect and deterioration in social interactions
- Reproduction
- Malnutrition reduces fertility and if present during pregnancy can predispose to problems with diabetes, heart disease and stroke in the baby in later life.
- Impaired temperature regulation
- This can lead to hypothermia
Consequences of malnutrition in children and adolescents
- Growth failure and stunting
- Delayed sexual development
- Reduced muscle mass and strength
- Impaired intellectual development
- Rickets
- Increased lifetime risk of osteoporosis
Consequences of specific micronutrient deficiencies
There are very many of these and so only the commonest are given below:
- Iron deficiency can cause anaemia
- Zinc deficiency causes skin rashes and decreased ability to fight infection
- Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause anaemia and problems with nerves
- Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults
- Vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy
- Vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness
