Risks associated with being underweight

Being underweight can trigger several serious health conditions. Amongst the more serious are diabetes, cancer, and a reduced immune defense that enables viruses and inflammations to thrive

 

Be forewarned, that a low BMI can be just as harmful to health as a high BMI score; although the symptoms may manifest themselves in a different manner. The most frequent health issues associated with being underweight are:

 

• Osteoporosis; basically brittle bones due to a lack of calcium, vitamin K2, and vitamin D3. This again may result in complicated fractures from minor incidents

• Decreased immune function due to lack of basic nutrients; enabling viruses and inflammations to thrive

• Malnutrition in general, causing everything from poor eyesight due to lack of Taurine, to scurvy from lack of vitamin C or low blood count due to iron deficiency

• Overall risk of not recuperating from cuts, bruises, or surgery due to lacking the nutrients necessary for blood to coagulate or the collagen in order for the skin to heal

• Development and growth issues, especially in children and adolescents. Lack of access to vitamins and nutrients affects the production of vital hormones necessary in order to facilitate the growth of bone and muscle tissue

• Challenges with reproduction (especially for women), due to interruptions of the menstrual cycle

• An increased risk of mortality if compared with those having a normal BMI, in particular with regards to heart failures due to lack of potassium

Important noting is that a low BMI not necessarily has to do with low food intake, as it just as well may be the result of some underlying condition. The general public is quite keen to label underweight people as anorectic, but it may as well have been caused by:

 

Hyperthyroidism

A hyperactive thyroid gland, meaning that your thyroid gland is producing too much of the thyroxine hormone, which in turn accelerates metabolism and cause extreme weight loss and irregular heartbeats

 

Cancer

Cancer may cause fever, fatigue, and extreme weight loss. The reasons for this is that cancer can change the manner in which our bodies synthesize energy from food, and the development of cancer itself can sometimes spend wast amounts of your body’s energy supplies, leaving fewer calories for the rebuilding of tissue, again tearing away at your muscle and fat reserves

 

Tuberculosis

This scary condition is known to cause drastic decreases in appetite, again resulting in acute weight loss

 

Diabetes

Diabetes is caused by irregularities in insulin production, potentially preventing the body from absorbing glucose from the bloodstream. This again results in the body having no available energy supply from our blood, which it again solves by harvesting energy from fat deposits or in extreme cases, even from muscle through braking up existing protein structures into readily available amino acids that it again may use as an energy source