You have rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr. Hildreth says inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis (RA)—an auto-immune disease where your immune system attacks your healthy tissues by mistake—or some types of infection can knock out a sufferer’s appetite, causing a drop on the scale. These conditions can also cause inflammation in your gut, which could mess with nutrient absorption, leading to unexplained weight loss before diagnosis.
Treatment: RA can be treated and managed with medications like disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDS) and biological response modifiers (biologicals). Some may choose to add pain management strategies to their treatment plan, too, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It may be cancer.
Several types of cancer, as well as a tumor or ulcer in your stomach or intestines, can cause inflammation or malabsorption issues that may lead to a drop in weight, Dr. Wakim-Fleming says. “If someone comes to me with unexplained weight loss, I’ll check their stomach and colon and bowels for tumors or inflammation,” she says. “I’ll als0 look for tumors in the esophagus”—the tube that connects your throat and stomach—“which can make it hard to swallow.” Dr. Ali adds that battling cancer consumes a lot of calories, so the disease itself may be making you unintentionally drop pounds.
Treatment: Cancer treatments are constantly evolving, and each type and stage of cancer responds to different treatments. Some common options are chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.