Body composition and disease: is there anything new to be learned?

The observation that disease has an effect on the tissues of the human body is as old as medicine, itself, and was not lost on preliterate and pre-technological societies. Primary changes in the amount, proportions or quality of total body mass, specific organs and specific tissues constitute pathologies; conversely, changes in body composition secondary to and conditioned by diseases are myriad. The classification of most of the associations has been roughly addressed. Nutritional and dietetic therapeutics allows us to intervene to change proportions of fat and lean, while surgery provides some leverage to modify and reconstruct organs and appendages and also to remove excess fat. With respect to these secondary changes due to illness, however, one must determine whether they are generally detrimental or adaptive/accommodative before deciding to intervene. In the context of diet, body composition and ethnicity, ethnic groups differ with respect to their susceptibility to certain diseases and to the severity of their expression. Moreover, differences among different races in body composition are being documented systematically. The future holds in store the ability to analyse the molecular and chemical composition of the body. And we shall be able to focus not merely at the whole-body level, but at regional, segmental and even cellular loci. What must be kept in perspective is ensuring accessibility of the emerging technology to developing nations, as that is where the greatest diversity of both pathology and ethnicity is to be found.