Research
Hormonal
Nutritional support alone is ineffective for treating disease-induced cachexia because the primary driver is cytokine-mediated muscle catabolism and hypothalamic dysregulation, not simple energy deficit.
If a patient has cachexia (wasting due to illness like cancer or sepsis), simply increasing food intake will not restore muscle mass. Treatment requires addressing the underlying disease (e.g., infection, cancer) and potentially exercise, as nutrition alone is insufficient.
ModerateRefutesHIGH confidence
cachexia 'cannot be successfully treated with nutrition alone'... cachexia does not respond to nutritional support there is negative protein energy balance due to both reduced intake and abnormal metabolism leading to progressive functional impairment
Why this rating
This is a review paper citing consensus documents and systematic reviews, not a primary RCT.
Source
Malnutrition, fatigue, frailty, vulnerability, sarcopenia and cachexia
Khursheed N. Jeejeebhoy · Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care · 2012
DOI 10.1097/mco.0b013e328352694f
narrative_reviewCited 228×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Exercise is an effective intervention for sarcopenia and frailty, improving muscle strength and function even in the elderly, whereas nutritional supplements alone do not increase muscle mass or strength.Moderate
- Pure protein-energy malnutrition (starvation) responds dramatically to nutritional support, unlike cachexia, because the primary mechanism is an energy deficit rather than active catabolic signaling.Moderate
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