A medical condition involving severe weight loss, muscle wasting, and overall physical deterioration, often caused by serious illness like cancer or tuberculosis.
From Late Latin 'cachexia,' derived from Greek 'kakos' (bad) and 'hexis' (condition or state). The word literally means 'bad condition' and was used by ancient physicians to describe wasting diseases. The medical understanding evolved as doctors recognized this as a symptom of systemic illness rather than simple starvation.
Doctors in ancient Greece recognized cachexia as a sign that something was deeply wrong inside the body long before they had tools to diagnose the actual disease—it's like the body's distress signal that something serious is happening.
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