Thinness
Recent clinical, regulatory, research and industry developments relating to this disease.
Global Effect of Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Lifetime Estimates.
A systematic review of weight stigma and disordered eating cognitions and behaviors.
Endocrinology of Underweight and Anorexia Nervosa.
A core gut microbiome in obese and lean twins.
Body mass index cut offs to define thinness in children and adolescents: international survey.
An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest.
What's happening now
An analyst briefing on current research, clinical, regulatory and industry activity surrounding this disease.
Research-associated treatments
Drugs and agents co-studied with this disease across the research literature — associative, not necessarily established treatments. Number shows shared papers.
Research activity
Key research shaping understanding of this disease, combining the latest publications with the most influential evidence.
Major themes8
- Anorexia Nervosa1
- Bariatric Surgery1
- Body Mass Index1
- Cardiovascular Diseases1
- Endocrinology1
- Energy Metabolism1
- Feeding and Eating Disorders1
- Fibrinolytic Agents1
Leading journals6
- Diabetes3
- Nature2
- BMJ (Clinical research ed.)1
- Body image1
- European heart journal. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy1
- Nature communications1
Leading researchers8
- Gordon JI2
- Ley RE2
- Turnbaugh PJ2
- Affourtit JP1
- Agewall S1
- Al-Nasser LA1
- Alegre-Diaz J1
- Amouyel P1
Affiliations (unnormalised)6
- Baylor College of Medicine2
- Center for Genome Sciences2
- Department of Clinical Medicine2
- LUM University2
- Aarhus University Hospital1
- Akershus University Hospital1
Related conditions
Diseases frequently studied alongside this one. Number shows shared papers.
Disease profile
A grounded synthesis of the condition — overview, causes, mechanism, risk factors and current standard of care.
Thinness is a state of insufficient body flesh, typically defined by body weight below skeletal and physical standards such as body mass index, with interpretation depending on age, sex, and genetic background. The supplied literature also treats underweight as a clinically relevant body-size category at the extremes of body weight.
The grounding does not support a specific aetiology for thinness as a general condition. It does note that thinness/underweight may occur in the context of anorexia nervosa and constitutional thinness, but it does not establish causes beyond those associations.
Thinness is associated with altered body composition and energy metabolism, and the literature on underweight highlights endocrine changes linked to malnutrition. The supplied abstracts also mention effects on hunger and satiety regulation, fertility, bone metabolism, and glucose homeostasis, indicating systemic consequences of low body mass.
The grounding does not provide specific risk factors for thinness. It does indicate that age, sex, and genetic background influence how low body weight is defined, and that weight stigma is associated with disordered eating cognitions and behaviors, but it does not establish these as risk factors for thinness itself.
The supplied material does not describe a standard treatment for thinness as a standalone condition. It only indicates that underweight can affect management of antithrombotic therapy because of altered body composition, metabolism, organ function, and drug pharmacokinetics, and that anorexia nervosa-related underweight is shaped by its physical changes.
AI-generated summary grounded in MeSH and 3 peer-reviewed sources. Informational only — not medical advice. Generated 2026-07-07.
Reference
Authoritative identity, definition & identifiers.
A state of insufficient flesh on the body usually defined as having a body weight less than skeletal and physical standards, such as BODY MASS INDEX, and dependent on age, sex, and genetic background.
- Disease identity & definition — NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), public domain
- Research activity — Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI) + OpenAlex-derived paper links
- Related entities are derived from literature co-mention (studied together) — associative, not causal.