Scurvy
I think it’s not a sexy topic from a research point of view. We’ve understood what causes [scurvy] for several hundred years and we know how to reverse scurvy - Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson
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“Inexplicable, Terrible, and Capricious”
Due to a genetic quirk humans picked up somewhere in our evolution, if you go about three months without the vitamins that fresh food provides, your body loses too much ascorbate (or vitamin C) to carry on. Ascorbate helps the body create collagen, the essential protein in the body’s connective tissue, and a deficiency is deeply painful. Sailors afflicted with scurvy, Jonathan Lamb writes in his engrossing cultural history Scurvy: The Disease of Discovery, “found their limbs growing stiff and their skin bruised and ulcerous. … Their gums grew black with corrupted blood and swelled so much the mortified flesh hid their teeth.”
A patient beset with scurvy is termed “scorbutic.” In the…
Resources
The Age of Scurvy
In a time of warring empires and transoceanic voyages, sailors dreaded scurvy more than any other disease.
A Deadly 18th Century Disease Is Making a Comeback in Some of The World's Richest Countries
In the modern world, we don't think of malnutrition as something found in wealthy countries, like the United States. And yet, a notorious 18th century disease caused by the lack of a single vitamin has been rearing its head in a nation that wastes a quarter of its food every year.
Scurvy: is it really making a comeback in the UK?
Scurvy is on the rise in the UK and picky eating might be the cause, a recent report in Metro suggests. But is this something we should worry about? As with most things, it’s not as clear cut as it might seem.
Scurvy Is a Serious Public Health Problem
Even for people who aren’t 18th-century pirates.
Scurvy: A tale of the sailors' curse and a cure that got lost
The fact that it took such a long time to nail the true cause of scurvy tells us a lot about science both then and now, argues a new book about the disease.
Scurvy: The Disease of the Enlightenment
Victims were reduced to walking corpses, their ligaments cracking and bones turning black. But the disease’s highly unusual symptoms also included intense cravings and unbearable nostalgia. Mike Jay reviews Jonathan Lamb’s book about this ‘disease of discovery’
Children In Manhattan Got Scurvy And Rickets, 19th Century Skeletons Reveal
Also affecting the children was scurvy. We may associate this deficiency of vitamin C with pirates who could not get fresh fruit on their sea voyages, but scurvy was a real problem in early 19th century Manhattan because of the difficulty getting fresh foods.
Earliest Case Of Scurvy In Ancient Egypt Detected By Archaeologists
Earlier this week, it was reported that an infant in Spain was diagnosed with scurvy due to a diet of almond-based formula. Irritability, bone loss, and low vitamin C led doctors to conclude that scurvy, a disease generally associated with old-timey pirate stories, had caused the child's issues.
Explainer: what is scurvy and is it making a comeback?
Scurvy is caused by severe and chronic deficiency of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and is in modern times extremely rare. But considering our current dietary habits and their association with lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, could scurvy be making a comeback?
How the British defeated Napoleon with citrus fruit
The ability of the sailors of the Royal Navy to operate for such long periods at sea was remarkable. For most of the 18th century, ships could only stay at sea for relatively short periods (six to eight weeks), without the sailors developing scurvy. Victims would feel weak, bleed at the gums, old wounds would break down and they would get infections. In the later stages of scurvy, sailors would have hallucinations and could go blind before dying.
May 20, 1747: A Limey Ship, and Proud of It
1747: Aboard one of His Majesty's ships, a British doctor begins clinical testing that will uncover the cause of scurvy and lead to its cure.
Why Australians Are Coming Down with Scurvy
A dozen patients at a Sydney hospital were recently found to be suffering from scurvy—a condition more usually associated with 18th-century sailors.
“Inexplicable, Terrible, and Capricious”
A history of scurvy, the mysterious disease that haunted the age of exploration.
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