Malnutrition, a disease that threatens the elderly

“Mom had been floating in her dresses for some time. When I worried about it, she replied: “With age, you too will see, you will have a bird’s appetite.”, Testifies Véronique, nurse in Lille. Fifteen days later she stumbled and broke the neck of the femur. “

Undernutrition is a disease. And as P^r Agathe Raynaud-Simon, head of the geriatrics department at Bichat hospital in Paris, “An aging person who is losing weight is not normal. It’s a warning sign. ” Little is said about this issue, yet undernutrition affects 4 to 10% of people over 70 living at home, or 400,000 people in France. But also 35% of people in nursing homes and up to 70% of those hospitalized. A particularly worrying situation for the collective fighting against undernutrition, at the origin of the nutrition week which has just ended.

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“When we are undernourished we lose muscle, which will lead to falls and loss of autonomy. But it also goes