Cachexia

An handful of the Leavs or Roots [of garden succory] boyled in Wine or Water, and a draught thereof drunk faſting, […] helpeth the yellow Jaundice, the Heat of the Reins and of the Urin, and the Dropſie also, and thoſe that have an evil Diſpoſition in their Bodies by reaſon of long ſickneſs, evil Diet &c., which the Greeks call Καχεξία, Cachexia.

[T]he intimate nature of cachexia is a deterioration in the qualities of blood, a favourite doctrine with the humoral pathologists, in support of which many very powerful arguments might still be adduced.

If we have hitherto no approach to a physiological expression for those autopathic cachexiæ in which gout, scrofula, and cancer respectively originate, let it be observed that our faculty of analogical interpretation remains inert, in respect of these and many other disorders, only for want of a correct and comprehensive hæmatology.

One must take note, as well, of the difference between clinical accounts and clinical-pathological accounts. That is, one must distinguish among: 1) classifications based on clinical findings, such as those advanced by Sydenham and Sauvages, which grouped illnesses under such basic rubrics as fevers, fluxes, cachexias, weaknesses, etc.; […]

Cancer cachexia is a complex metabolic process, due to both host and tumor factors, which results in excess catabolism as well as aberrant fat and carbohydrate metabolism.

Cancer cachexia is a complex syndrome clinically manifest by progressive involuntary weight loss and diminished food intake and characterized by a variety of biochemical alterations.

Preoperative nutritional therapy in CHF [congestive heart failure] patients with cachexia is associated with improved postoperative survival rates. Hence, identifying susceptible patients and intervening prior to development of cardiac cachexia is necessary.

While sarcopenia occurs very commonly with aging, cachexia occurs mainly in association with acute or chronic disease.