Nutritional DocRD® ~ Severe Malnutrition

A large portion (greater than 50%) of people hospitalized in the United States are severly malnurished. Cachexia affects over 5 million people in the U.S. It is the major cause of excessive weight loss in the setting of ongoing disease. Symptoms include a disproportionate loss of muscle mass. Some advanced disease states include cardiac cachexia, chronic renal failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, anorexia-cachexia syndrome in cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and cachexia, aging and weight loss, and AIDS-related cachexia (wasting syndrome) (Morley, Thomas and Wilson, 2006).