MalnutritionSymptoms, Doctors, Treatments, Advances & More
Learn About Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that occurs when your body does not get enough nutrients.
Nutrition - inadequate
There are many types of malnutrition, and they have different causes. Some causes include:
- Poor diet
- Starvation due to food not being available
- Eating disorders
- Problems with digesting food or absorbing nutrients from food (malabsorption)
- Certain medical conditions that make a person unable to eat
You may develop malnutrition if you lack a single vitamin in your diet. Lacking a vitamin or other nutrient is called a deficiency.
Sometimes malnutrition is very mild and causes no symptoms. Other times it can be so severe that the damage it does to the body is permanent, even though you survive.
Poverty, natural disasters, political problems, and war can all contribute to malnutrition and starvation, and not just in developing countries.
Some health conditions that are related to malnutrition are:
- Malabsorption
- Hunger
- Beriberi
- Binge eating
- Deficiency - Vitamin A
- Deficiency - Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
- Deficiency - Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
- Deficiency - Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
- Deficiency - Vitamin B9 (folacin)
- Deficiency - Vitamin E
- Deficiency - Vitamin K
- Eating disorders (bulimia and anorexia)
- Kwashiorkor
- Megaloblastic anemia
- Pellagra
- Rickets
- Scurvy
- Spina bifida
Malnutrition is a significant problem all over the world, especially among children. It is very harmful to children because it affects brain development and other growth. Children who suffer from malnutrition may have lifelong problems.
Symptoms of malnutrition vary and depend on its cause. General symptoms include fatigue, dizziness, and weight loss.
Treatment most often consists of:
- Replacing missing nutrients
- Treating symptoms as needed
- Treating any underlying medical condition
Harbor-UCLA Nephrology
from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamyar_Kalantar-ZadehEducationKalantar-Zadeh received his education in medicine from the University of Bochum and University of Bonn (Germany) and his M.D. degree from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany).[1] In addition, he obtained a master's degree in public health (Master of Public Health, MPH) and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley.[1] He is a practicing triple board certified physician specialist in internal medicine, pediatrics, and nephrology.[1] Kalantar-Zadeh completed his residency at the State University of New York and his nephrology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.[1]CareerKalantar-Zadeh is a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and based at the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center (2000-2012, and since 2023), where he worked with his former mentor Joel D. Kopple and served as the founding director of the Harold Simmons Center for Chronic Disease Research and Epidemiology. During 2012-2022 Kalantar-Zadeh was in the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine as a tenured professor of medicine, pediatrics, public health, and Nursing Sciences, and chief of Nephrology,[1] and the UC Irvine Medical Center. He also serves as a part-time staff physician at Tibor-Rubin VA Medical center in Long Beach, California, under the Veterans Health Administration. Kalantar-Zadeh has r. Dr. Kalantar-Zadeh is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Malnutrition. He is also highly rated in 27 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Chronic Kidney Disease, Hypertension, High Potassium Level, Kidney Transplant, and Nephrectomy. Dr. Kalantar-Zadeh is board certified in Interal Medicine, Nephrology, and Pediatrics. Dr. Kalantar-Zadeh is currently accepting new patients.
Emory Clinic At 1365 Clifton Road
Thomas Ziegler is an Endocrinologist practicing medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been practicing medicine for over 43 years. Dr. Ziegler is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Malnutrition. He is also highly rated in 4 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Malnutrition, Vitamin D Deficiency, Obesity, Protein Deficiency, and Gastric Bypass. Dr. Ziegler is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine, 1995.
Emory Clinic At 1365 Clifton Road
Vin Tangpricha is an Endocrinologist practicing medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been practicing medicine for over 30 years. Dr. Tangpricha is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Malnutrition. He is also highly rated in 6 other conditions, according to our data. His clinical expertise encompasses Malnutrition, Vitamin D Deficiency, Osteoporosis, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), and Reconstructive Urology Surgery. Dr. Tangpricha is board certified in American Board Of Internal Medicine, 2001.
The outlook depends on the cause of the malnutrition. Most nutritional deficiencies can be corrected. However, if malnutrition is caused by a medical condition, that illness has to be treated in order to reverse the nutritional deficiency.
If untreated, malnutrition can lead to mental or physical disability, illness, and possibly death.
Talk to your provider about the risk of malnutrition. Treatment is necessary if you or your child have any changes in the body's ability to function. Contact your provider if these symptoms develop:
- Fainting
- Lack of menstruation
- Lack of growth in children
- Rapid hair loss
Eating a well-balanced diet helps to prevent most forms of malnutrition.
Summary: The goal of this study is to test if a two-way text-message (SMS) maternally administered malnutrition monitoring system (MAMMS) that delivers infant and young child feeding (IYCF) education and supports caregivers in monitoring their child's nutritional status at home can improve nutritional outcomes for HIV-exposed children. The aims include 1) to determine whether the MAMMS IYCF intervention lo...
Summary: This study has four objectives: 1) to provide investigators the opportunity to study bone specimens from patients with various skeletal diseases; 2) to treat patients with skeletal diseases at the NIH; 3) to expose NIH trainees to certain skeletal diseases; and 4) to gain more knowledge about skeletal diseases and stimulate further study of bone biology. Anyone with a disease that affects the skel...
Published Date: April 01, 2025
Published By: Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Clinical Professor Emeritus, Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
Cederholm TE, Bosaeus IG. Malnutrition: assessment and support. In: Goldman L, Cooney KA, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 27th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 198.
Mason JB, Booth SL. Vitamins, trace minerals, and other micronutrients. In: Goldman L, Cooney KA, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 27th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 199.
Nagata JM, McDonald CM. Nutrition, food security, and health. In: Kliegman RM, St. Geme JW, Blum NJ, et al, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 22nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2025:chap 62.
Saint-Cyr M, Waldrop SW, Krebs NF. Nutritional requirements. In: Kliegman RM, St. Geme JW, Blum NJ, et al, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 22nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2025:chap 60.