Reasons For Weight Loss Research Articles

Low body weight in Parkinson's disease.

Low body weight is a characteristic symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD), but the mechanism is unknown. To determine whether bulbar involvement is responsible for the weight loss, we compared the mean body weight (MBW), height, and body mass index (BMI) of 281 patients with PD and 86 patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Although the patients with PSP had significantly worse dysphagia and dysarthria than the patients with PD, their MBW and BMI were not appreciably different. We conclude that bulbar dysfunction is not the reason for weight loss in PD.

One more reason for weight loss in patients with aids

One more reason for weight loss in patients with aids

Why are Alzheimer patients thin?

Nutritional assessments were performed in three groups of hospitalized elderly women comparable in age and mobility: a group with Alzheimer's disease (ALZ), a multi-infarct dementia group (MID) and a nondemented group (ND). We have shown that: ALZ patients lose weight and on average weigh 21% less than ND patients and 14% less than MID patients. This weight loss is not accounted for by any obvious deficit in food intake, or by malabsorption. Biochemical indices of nutrition are little different in the three groups. The reason for weight loss in ALZ remains uncertain.

Digestible energy and efficiency of feed utilization in rats treated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo- p-dioxin

Treatment of male rats (300 to 325 g) with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo- p-dioxin (TCDD, 15 or 50 μg/kg) caused dose-dependent reductions in body weight, feed and water intakes, and fecal output. Urine output, however, was not altered by TCDD. Fecal energy loss, as a percentage of daily feed energy intake (kcal/day), was similar in control and TCDD-treated rats as was the percentage of feed energy absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, i.e., digestible energy. These findings dispel the long-standing proposal that a gross malabsorption syndrome is responsible for weight loss in TCDD-treated rats and place greater emphasis on hypophagia as the reason for weight loss. In support of a central role for hypophagia, it was found that control rats pair-fed to rats treated with a sublethal dose of TCDD (15 μg/kg) lost almost the same amount of weight. However, from 15 to 50 days post-treatment, the pair-fed animals consistently maintained their weight at a 10- to 15-g higher level than age-matched TCDD-treated rats. To determine why this weight difference occurs, the efficiency of feed utilization from Day 30 to 45 post-treatment in ad libitum fed control and TCDD-treated rats (15 μg/kg) that were maintaining different levels of body weight was compared. First, daily feed intakes of TCDD-treated and control rats were determined from Day 25 to 30 post-treatment. Second, weight of both groups were lowered by reducing feed intake in two successive 5-day periods to 50 and 10% of the respective ad libitum level. Third, on Days 40 to 45, both groups were refed their prereduction level of intake but reduced in proportion to the intervening loss in metabolic tissue mass. At each level of feed energy reduction, weight losses observed in the TCDD-treated and control rats were equivalent. Furthermone, although given only prerestriction amounts of feed that were indexed to their reduced metabolic body size (body wt kg 0.75), both TCDD-treated and control rats gained weight rapidly and at similar rates during the refeeding period. Thus, rats treated with a sublethal dose of TCDD displayed normal efficiency of feed utiization but did so at a subnormal level of weight. That is, just like control rats, TCDD-treated rats increased their efficiency of feed utiilzation (weight gain/feed intake) but only when their body weight was caused to fall below the lower weight maintenance level determined by the TCDD dose administered. This difference in weight level, below which control and TCDD-treated rats increase their efficiency of feed utilization, might explain why pair-fed control rats maintained a slightly higher level of body weight than TCDD-treated animals while ingesting the same amount of feed.