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Course: Stanford School of Medicine > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Growth and MetabolismCycle of Malnutrition
Unfortunately, malnutrition often causes problems that can lead to more malnutrition. Learn how this cycle can develop.
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I'd say that malnutrition also occurs when people are obese. The wrong foods in large quantities will not provide the nutrients people need, thus malnutrition applies. I recently read that this form of malnutrition even seems to outnumber the number of people malnourished in the quantitive sense. Could be useful to also make a video about.(7 votes)
I thoroughly agree with this, we covered it in a biology lesson earlier this year and it showed that obesity has not the same effects on the immune system but equally bad ones which only proves that obesity is a form of malnutrition. To become obese, too much of certain types of food have to be eaten which, in its own way is malnutrition as malnutrition is defined as lack of proper nutrition or poor diet, eating an unhealthy balance.(2 votes)
If you think America has issues... you should see Italy, Portugal or France. My parents have a place in those countries and even though we're in the wealthier neighbourhoods, there are still quite a few struggling people. Also, we have a condo in Florida and there are barely any people that are poor there. Why don't we pay more attention to the most challenged places?(4 votes)
It's good to take advantage of the luxury of international travel to reevaluate what is taught, indeed! I think what strikes you isn't a difference in levels of poverty, but differences in the visibility of poverty. I also have lived both in Europe and the US. In the US, especielly the southeastern states, neighbourhoods are very segregated along economic (and sometimes racial) lines. In Europe, you're a little more likely to see poor people and rich people in the same neighbourhoods.
The most challenged places, clearly, are in the "developing" world. Childhood malnutrition is systemic in many parts of the world.(6 votes)
Can there be malnutrion in a wealthy family child ?(3 votes)- Is there such a thing as 'over nutrition' or excess nutrition, and would that be what we're seeing in the USA right now?(3 votes)
what's observed in the US is both. There's a large % of the population that is overweight or obese. At the same time, there's plenty of people who are malnourished. One is not the opposite of the other as they measure different things; however both are the result of poor diets, empty calories or simply not enough food, and certain habits and lifestyles.(2 votes)
- America shouldn't really be like this.... I live in Toronto and I don't know how America is like (other than Florida and Los Angeles because my family has two places there) but I hear that American's eat alot of McDonalds and isn't that cheap? Fruits and vegetables aren't that expensive either! The wealthier people should donate money to shelters and actually spend some time to care about others.(2 votes)
We do. The problem is that it still isn't enough. We are only 1 country, we cannot support the world.(2 votes)
- how can this cycle be broken? what is the best strategy or approach to prevent this? It seems that early intervention in a child's diet could be the easiest point at which to intervene to prevent the cascading effect. There are already some "solutions" to this, why aren't they widespread? What do society or existing solutions lack to prevent/eradicate child malnutrition?(2 votes)
A 4th grader cannot understand this. Period.(1 vote)- what is exslaty at1:23min(1 vote)
The word she uses is inhibits. BTW exactly.(1 vote)
- In America and the world together, Malnutrition is a vital issue because without nourishment how can a child be educated?(1 vote)
- How much time does it actually take for a child to start talking or walking?Is it compulsory that every child who looks skinny is malnutritioned or is it just genes?Can genes be thus a cause of malnutrition?(1 vote)
Usually in the first 2 years of life, not every child who is skinny has malnutrition, genes probably don't play a part in malnutrition(1 vote)
1:23Video transcript
Voiceover: There are approximately
three billion people living in our world today who survive on less
than two U.S. dollars a day. As a result of this, we have
a cycle of malnutrition, especially amongst our young children. At present, there are about 160 million
children under the age of five who are malnourished in our world. These are children who are mostly
living in developing parts of the world; in Asia, in Africa,
parts of Latin America. This cycle of malnutrition is
what I'd like to go through today. Malnutrition, one of the biggest concerns
that we have when we have a child who's experiencing malnutrition is the
fact that that child's immune system is going to be compromised. That means that that child is
going to be less likely to be able to fight off diseases. A compromised immune system is going to
lead to an increase in both the duration and the number of diseases that
that child experiences growing up. Another thing that malnutrition does is
that it inhibits or it slows down both the growth, the physical growth of a
child; so that's increases in weight, height, and head circumference. Also, it also inhibits or slows
down the development of the child. When we're talking about
development, we're talking
about maturation of the child. Development can occur either
with or without physical growth. An example of development without physical
growth would be learning how to speak, or learning how to walk. An example of development with physical
growth would be for example pubertal development, or development
around the time of puberty. All of these things, delays in
growth, delays in development,
and an increase in the number and the severity of
diseases experienced by the
child; all of these things are going to lead to an overall
decrease in the lifetime
productivity of that child. That child is less likely to be a highly
functioning member of the society in which that child lives because of the fact that
they're small, that they're unable or less able to learn effectively;
and also that they're often ill. What's going to happen then? Obviously, children grow up. What happens then when you have widespread
malnutrition is that this decreased productivity becomes a
characteristic of all of the children who are becoming the
adults within a society. That's going to lead to a decrease
in the country's development. Decrease in county, I'll just
write countrywide development. The first side effect or symptom of
that is going to be widespread poverty. You're going to see a lot of poverty,
and of course one of the sequelae or the follow-ons of widespread poverty is
of course malnutrition in children. You can see that this is
a self-perpetuating cycle. We have malnutrition in many
children around the world leading to delayed growth, or stunted restricted
growth and restricted development, decreases in the child's ability to battle
disease leading to increased illness; all of these things contributing to
decreased productivity of the child. That is going to lead to decreased
productivity of the country, widespread poverty,and again, malnutrition.