Reply To: Cachexia
Some other thoughts…..
Muscle wasting is a loss of protein and nitrogen. If this is in part due to gluconeogenesis raging out of control, then it makes sense that increasing carbs in general and sucrose in particular could be very useful to slow and reverse the rapid weight and muscle loss. A higher protein intake would also be very useful, and it really could be any kind, if muscle loss is rapid. Milk, meat, gelatin, protein supplements, really, whatever he can eat, and eat in higher amounts. I think some sort of protein shake could be useful, at least for a time.
Another possibly useful supplement is urea. It might be able to normalize nitrogen balance fast, and in fairly low amounts, it has about 2.5 times the nitrogen value of protein (eg, 30 grams of urea has the same nitrogen value as 80 grams of protein). The only issue, and it’s a big one, is that the taste is horrid.
Cyproheptadine might be one of the best drugs he’s on. What is the dose? You might want to ask your doctors about increasing the dose, as it is notorious for stimulating appetite, and helping people to put on weight. You can go look at some of the cyproheptadine threats on the old RPF for confirmation of this, or just do a google search. So many people report putting on something like 20, 30, 40 pounds while on cypro, even some bodybuilders use it for this purpose. Many times, it’s seen as a negative, but this would be a huge positive for in your husbands case.
Lastly, does he have any issues eating? Is he not hungry? Can he not hold food down or digest it properly? Wasting can be a viscious circle, where you aren’t that hungry, you start to lose weight, and then your body starts to shut down things like digestive processes, which makes it harder to eat, which can make weight loss accelerate, and so on. In cases like this, something like an anti nausea med like Ondansetron (which is anti serotonin like Cypro), or things that stimulate stomach acid production, like salt and maybe something like Beatine HCL, could also be possibilities to look into.