What to do if you suddenly lose your appetite. Loss of appetite - treatment with medications. Why do pregnant women refuse food?

The problem of weight loss has been studied for a long time. New and varied diets, training programs, courses and much more are constantly appearing. Much less attention is paid to this important issue like gaining weight. Thinness is not only an aesthetic problem, but can also lead to poor health. By observing several simple rules You can put your body in order and start a new life.

The feeling of hunger is a signal from the body that it needs food. nutrients Oh. The hunger center, which is located in the hypothalamus, gives a signal about the lack of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and microelements. If a person loses their appetite, this can lead to nutritional imbalance.

If a person is not able to eat the amount of food that his body requires, then his appetite is impaired. There may be several reasons:

• neuropsychic (somatic);
• disruption of the digestive system;
• metabolic disease;
• bad habits (smoking and drinking alcohol);
• avitaminosis.

Any chronic and acute diseases, infections, tumors can also lead to disruption and complete loss appetite.

Reduces appetite medicines, in particular antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, tablets to increase blood pressure.

Among the psychosomatic reasons: stress, habit, social phobias, anorexia, depression. Among the problems of the gastrointestinal tract: gastritis, dysbiosis, intestinal dyskinesia, problems with the production of enzymes, diseases of the pancreas or gall bladder.

Proven ways to improve appetite

There are three sports supplements for gaining weight:

• (protein + carbohydrates).

Additional source useful substances may be amino acids and beta-alanine. These supplements are needed to increase energy during strength training, but do not affect the process of weight gain.

Whey protein is needed to speed up metabolism and muscle growth. Daily norm protein an athlete has 1.5-2.5 grams of protein per 1 kg of weight. Whey protein is absorbed in minutes, while regular food takes more than an hour. Protein is consumed not only on training days. 1 measuring spoon sports supplement equivalent to a serving of meat.

Creatine retains fluid in the muscles, which makes them appear larger. The substance is able to optimize energy processes in muscles, increase strength indicators, due to which muscles will grow faster.

Gainer consists of protein and carbohydrates. Carbohydrate is a source of energy and is necessary for recovery after exercise. The mixture is also quickly absorbed by the body. Taken on training and rest days as an additional source of nutrition.

Help of medicinal plants and herbal collections

Bitter herbs (bitters) are used to increase appetite. You can buy them at any pharmacy. Before taking it, it is recommended to consult with your doctor to rule out side effects. They irritate the gastric mucosa and cause reflex secretion gastric juice.

Bitterness is present in the composition of the appetizing collection, in the preparations Vitaon and Aristochol, in stomach tablets with belladonna extract.

The above herbs increase the feeling of hunger, have a choleretic effect, and relieve inflammation.

Since bitterness causes the secretion of gastric juice, it is forbidden to take them for gastritis and ulcers.

Additionally, you can take: juniper, barberry, black currant, anise seeds, caraway seeds, sea buckthorn. Chicory, yellow gentian, and plantain have a stronger effect.

Honey, propolis and bee bread will help replenish the body essential minerals and vitamins, which will lead to proper operation Gastrointestinal tract.

Dangerous ways to increase appetite

If you abuse any of the methods of increasing appetite, it can be detrimental to your health.

You should not take any medications without a doctor’s prescription, deviate from the instructions or increase the recommended course of treatment. The same applies to traditional medicine.

Before you start taking measures, you need to undergo an examination with a doctor and identify the objective causes of disorders in the body.

You can only eat healthy food, don’t eat fast foods, don’t eat at night, consume only healthy glucose.

Under no circumstances should you accept hormonal drugs without special indications.

Physical exercise should also be in moderation increased fatigue will only lead to disruption of digestive processes.

Conclusion

Any healthy person can increase their appetite; this should be done moderately and gradually, without expecting quick results. A set of measures will allow you to restore your body’s functioning, feel better and more confident.

Be sure to read about it

To understand the cause of poor appetite, it would be good to know when this very appetite comes to us. This sensation depends on enzymes and gastric juice. When the required level of these substances accumulates in the stomach, a person begins to want to eat. Judging from the opposite, a person loses his appetite when enzymes and gastric juice are poorly produced or not produced at all. It also happens that bile is thrown into the stomach from the liver, and it suppresses the acidity of the stomach and thereby suppresses appetite.

Sometimes loss of appetite is caused by overindulgence in foods rich in saturated fat or sweets. Smoking and alcohol individuals may also reduce appetite. Heredity plays a big role in the amount of food eaten, so sometimes “little people” fall into the category of people with poor appetite. And in some cases, the cause of decreased appetite cannot be determined. Most likely, it will be in the field of psychosomatics.

Causes of poor appetite

First of all, appetite may decrease or disappear due to serious diseases of the cardiovascular system, chronic liver diseases, kidney infections and hepatitis. Another reason for this phenomenon is inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, in particular the intestines, as well as cancer of the stomach and colon. For acute respiratory diseases, flu and colds, this can also very well happen, because it is with these diseases that the body wants to direct all its strength to fight the disease. Another group of diseases that occur with loss of appetite: diabetes, decreased hormone levels thyroid gland, as well as endocrine problems. Immune, mental and nervous system may also be accompanied by food aversions.

Sometimes the reason for lack of appetite lies in. If there are signs such as bad dream, lethargy and nervousness - this may be due to a lack of vitamin B1. An organism that does not receive vital important substances, microelements and vitamins, simply refuses poor food - this can be called self-defense.

In addition, loss of appetite can occur due to medications such as anesthetics, antibiotics, diabetes medications, and chemotherapy.

How to get your appetite back

If the loss of appetite is not caused by serious illnesses, then you can try to correct this situation. First, you can increase the acidity of your stomach juices with foods that help produce digestive enzymes and stimulate your appetite. This includes hot seasonings, for example horseradish, mustard, pepper, as well as spices(greenery). Juices of plantain, garden cabbage, infusions of bison grass and St. John's wort will also help.

It will also help improve your appetite the right combination dishes during meals and their proper distribution. For example, contrary to tradition, the meal should begin with the second course, and soup should be eaten ten minutes after the second course. Then the gastric juice that is in the stomach will not be diluted with liquid soup, and it will be easier for it to digest solid food. You can also slightly acidify the food with vinegar or salt well.

Cooking for a person who has a poor appetite follows certain rules. So, it is better to fill the cereal with water and keep it like that for a while, and then just cook it. Do not cook the meat and potatoes completely, leave them as if undercooked or undercooked. It’s better to cook the fish longer.

You can include mini meals and nutritious snacks that are rich in protein in the diet of a person with poor appetite. Or try drinks containing high amounts of protein. Another way is to take nutritional supplements in the form of yeast, which includes vitamin B. Green vegetable salads, with large amounts (especially those containing zinc) can also restore lost appetite.

To increase appetite, decoctions and infusions of herbs are sometimes prescribed who drink half an hour before meals. These remedies will help stimulate appetite, which has disappeared during psycho-emotional disorders and stress. This healing teas from chamomile, peppermint, lemon balm or dill. They put the nervous system in order, and at the same time interest in food returns.

Signs of poor appetite

How to determine whether loss of appetite is caused by a serious reason or is it a temporary phenomenon? Let's look at the points:

• Loss of appetite is accompanied by weight loss, this process occurs gradually and steadily. These signs may indicate the presence serious illnesses and you need to go for examination to the clinic. Sometimes the cause can be determined by a blood or urine test. These indicators can help identify liver disease, diabetes or hormonal imbalance. A urine test can help identify an infection in the kidneys. Using X-ray chest You can check your lungs for pneumonia and other diseases. Ultrasonography will help check abdominal cavity, as well as examine the function of the liver, kidneys and thyroid gland.

• If a person is sick and has lost his appetite, it is better not to force himself to eat. We know that some people cure such diseases much faster with the help of fasting. The fact is that the body spends a lot of energy on digesting food. Illness is an additional burden, which means additional energy is needed. So the body refuses food in order to direct all its strength to fight the disease. Here you can remember wise animals who refuse food and even drink when unwell.
• Rescheduled severe stress can also cause loss of appetite. During stress, the walls of the esophagus spasm, the body understands that food simply will not pass into it, and refuses it. In this case, you need to overcome the effects of stress by any means and try to eat liquid food. Gradually, the body will understand that nothing threatens it, and it can safely accept any food. But if such stresses are repeated frequently or a person constantly lives amid them, then the problem may turn out to be chronic. Helps in relieving stress favorite hobby, walks in nature (preferably near the water), meditative music, massage or sauna. Everyone can also find their own way. However, the most effective method– getting rid of the source of stress.
• Lack of a clear or at least some kind of daily routine, full breakfasts and lunches can throw the body off rhythm and worsen appetite. Eternal snacking with sandwiches, coffee and a cigarette can lead to stress throughout digestive system, and she will refuse food. Indulge yourself at least sometimes with home-cooked dinners, so as not to completely forget what a good appetite and healthy intestines are.
• The desire to lose weight and compliance different diets may cause psychological aversion to food. This is already a problem in the field of medicine and psychiatry, and it is not easy to overcome. Therefore, we need to understand why we need this or that diet, and love ourselves for who we are. And don’t walk around the clinic looking for lost appetite. After all, even famous models, who shone on the podium for many years, could not always cope with this problem and died from anorexia.

Anyway, Whatever the reason for loss of appetite, you cannot put up with it. A lack of nutrients, vitamins and minerals can ultimately lead to depletion of the body and new diseases. Therefore, it is simply necessary to find out the reason and get rid of it.

Appetite is a mechanism aimed at regulating the food entering the body. It usually occurs against the background of hunger and intensifies when we see or smell food. So, in a person who has developed his own diet, by a certain hour digestive juices begin to secrete - they prepare the digestive tract for work.

The feeling of hunger is a consequence of a physiological decrease in blood glucose levels - the centers of the brain are irritated, thereby stimulating a person to search for food. Hunger provokes a strong appetite. However, sometimes appetite can manifest itself as a response to an attractive appearance dish (and its aroma) or arise selectively as a reaction to a certain type of food - the one from which a person receives maximum pleasure (even if he is not hungry). This behavior may be a sign of a disorder eating behavior according to the external type (a person eats unconsciously - external stimuli become a trigger for eating. - Note ed.).

There are quite a few reasons why your appetite may disappear. For example, if we get sick viral infection and our temperature has risen, the body will have to spend strength and energy not on digesting food (after all, a rather energy-intensive process), but on fighting the infection. This is why a person often loses his appetite during the first days of illness - he may only want to drink and not want to eat at all. In addition, appetite may disappear due to various chronic diseases gastrointestinal tract, endocrine and nervous systems, oncological diseases, chronic infections, brain diseases and various mental problems.

As a rule, appetite decreases with age - the amount taste buds and receptors that respond to odors decrease, appetite weakens and older people often begin to eat less, while receiving less pleasure from food.

Moreover, if a person is experiencing severe stress, his appetite may also disappear: all thoughts are aimed at solving some problem and the brain works hard to solve it - one focus of excitation in the brain temporarily blocks all other centers of excitation. Often in such a situation a person basically forgets about his own physiological needs, for example about what you need to eat or sleep.

If a person is healthy and has already developed a certain diet, he may simply not experience strong appetite- he does not allow long intervals between meals and the feeling of hunger does not have time to fully develop. In this case, the saying " appetite comes with eating" fits perfectly. When it’s time for lunch or dinner, it’s enough for a person to see food or smell it for an appetite to appear (even if there was none before). Therefore, the main thing is to follow the regime and not skip meals. If, in principle, there is never any appetite, perhaps the reason is hidden in psychological and mental problems (for example, in) or in any other chronic disease.

If you don’t have an appetite, you can first try to get it back - beautiful serving, delicious dishes, walk and physical activity on fresh air before eating will only contribute to this. Plus, analyze your nutrition during the day: perhaps you are interrupting your appetite with too frequent or too high-calorie snacks and sugary drinks (this is also food). Perhaps you basically do not have any regime and you eat chaotically. In general, try to establish a regimen, and if this does not help, consult a therapist - he will prescribe necessary examinations. Treatment will depend on what disease or condition the doctor suspects upon presentation. Yes, there is therapy that helps restore appetite, but most often it is carried out purposefully if a person is very exhausted. Usually this complex therapy, aimed at increasing appetite, and at correcting the body’s nutrition, and at solving psychological (or any other) problems that caused the development of anorexia.

Health problems can unsettle you for a long time. Even if unpleasant symptoms occur only periodically, they still interfere normal life, spoils general health and impairs performance. The most common ailments include disturbances in activity digestive tract. They can develop completely unexpectedly, in response to dietary errors or poor lifestyle choices. Let us clarify why loss of appetite, nausea, and weight loss occur.

Loss of appetite, weight loss

Appetite may worsen or decrease due to the influence of many factors. Sometimes this symptom is explained by intoxication of the body caused by inflammatory processes or poisoning. During the height of the disease or poisoning, the body does not have the strength to digest food, it devotes all its strength to eliminating toxins and the most different products decay.

Appetite often disappears during exacerbation of ailments of the digestive tract, which are accompanied by painful sensations and general discomfort.
Sometimes this violation is explained endocrine disorders– decreased activity of the thyroid gland, decreased activity of the pituitary gland or hypothalamus.

In addition, appetite may worsen due to disturbances metabolic processes, including due to those that developed against the background of cancer lesions.
Another alarming symptomatology is sometimes explained by neuropsychic disorders (neuroses, depression, etc.).

If you notice that your usual relationship with food has been disrupted - your appetite has decreased or disappeared, or your taste preferences, be sure to consult a doctor - therapist, psychotherapist, nutritionist, gastroenterologist and endocrinologist.
If there is no appetite for a long time, weight loss is the least evil that awaits such a person.

Nausea, weight loss

Nausea is quite unpleasant symptom, which can be described as the appearance of a painful sensation in the epigastric or throat area. This sensation may lead to vomiting. There are quite a few factors that can cause such a violation. It is clear that in such a state you do not want to eat. If this condition drags on, the person will begin to lose weight.

Thus, nausea can develop in patients with gastritis or peptic ulcer. In this case, it appears soon after a meal, the patient is also bothered by heaviness in the stomach, heartburn and burning.

Sometimes this disturbance of well-being is explained by consumption medicines, for example, antibiotics, antiviral drugs or vitamins, etc.
Feelings of nausea may occur in people who have suffered a concussion. In such a situation, the patient is also worried about dizziness, and the nausea itself is constant.

An unpleasant painful sensation in the epigastrium is a classic disturbance in the well-being of pregnant women in the first three months of bearing a child. This symptom is usually considered normal and goes away on its own.

Sometimes nausea is a serious manifestation of meningitis. In such a situation, it is accompanied by fever, photophobia, a feeling of pressure in the back of the head, etc.

If, with nausea, you are also bothered by bitterness in your mouth, distension in the stomach area, pain in the right hypochondrium, most likely you are faced with gallbladder disease.

Quite often this happens unpleasant violation well-being is explained by the development acute pancreatitis or exacerbation chronic form of this disease. In this case, nausea develops soon after eating, accompanied by pain in the right hypochondrium and noticeable bloating.

If nausea occurs in combination with pain near the navel or in the right side, such a disorder may indicate the development of appendicitis.

Among other things this state also occurs during poisoning. With such a lesion, nausea develops two to three hours after consumption of insufficient quality products nutrition. It can be accompanied by vomiting, stool upset, and even an increase in temperature. In this condition, there is no appetite, nausea and vomiting stop only after gastric lavage.

This condition is also possible if you inhale paint fumes. Usually, nausea is then accompanied by a headache.

Nausea also sometimes becomes a manifestation inflammatory lesion kidney In such a situation, it is usually accompanied by an increase in temperature and ongoing pain in the lower back.

If systematic nausea occurs, you must definitely consult a gastroenterologist.

Weight loss

Weight loss can occur due to external or internal factors.

It can be caused by dietary restrictions caused by:

Impaired consciousness (TBI and stroke);
- swallowing disorders (tumor lesions, narrowing of the esophagus or larynx);
- decreased appetite ( anorexia nervosa and intoxication), etc.

Sudden weight loss can be explained by digestive disorders:

Impaired digestion of proteins and fats ( atrophic gastritis, gastrointestinal ulcers, pancreatitis, hepatitis, liver cirrhosis);

Impaired absorption of nutrients (celiac disease, enteritis, colitis).

In some cases, weight loss occurs due to metabolic disorders, when destruction processes prevail over synthesis processes. Similar situation can be observed with severe injuries, burns, cancer, endocrine pathologies and connective tissue diseases.

If a person has nausea, loss of appetite, or weight loss of an unexplained nature, the first thing to do is consult a physician. You may also need to consult an endocrinologist, oncologist, gastroenterologist, psychologist and infectious disease specialist.

Causes of weak appetite

• psychosomatic;
• disorders of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT);
• metabolic disorders.

Increased appetite in psychosomatic disorders

Increased appetite in gastrointestinal disorders

Prevention

Dyskinesia of one or more parts of the intestine.

The main symptom is regular constipation and abdominal pain. Often occurs in older people, also occurs when sedentary life, insufficient water consumption. Treatment: physical education, especially exercises that change intra-abdominal pressure such as abdominal exercises. Jogging or walking outdoors will also be helpful. In your diet, you should increase the amount of water you drink, limit your consumption of flour and sweet foods, drink more milk and fermented milk products (especially in the morning and at night). It's also good to drink vegetable oil Take a tablespoon in the morning and evening; it will facilitate the passage of intestinal contents; its combination with fresh kefir is especially effective.

Increased appetite in metabolic disorders