Major Symptoms Of Pneumonia

Low Appetite

Pneumonia can cause some affected individuals to lose their appetite as a manifestation of their infection. Much like other symptoms of pneumonia, the loss of appetite is actually a mechanism to stop the infection from progressing. The same surge of hormones that causes the patient's temperature to increase and triggers feelings of sleepiness also reduces their desire to consume food. Pathogenic bacteria that cause infections like pneumonia have to have food to carry out their own processes, stay alive, and grow, just like cells around the body.

However, pathogenic bacteria need glucose as food, while the cells in the body can use other means like fats to synthesize into usable energy. The low appetite results in the patient consuming less glucose overall. When there is no longer enough glucose to go around, the pathogenic bacteria will essentially starve without it. Viruses do not consume glucose to live as bacteria do, so a loss of appetite does not help the body recover from viral pneumonia. However, the body still produces this defense mechanism when the individual has pneumonia caused by a virus because it is unaware of the difference.