Nutritional Disease: Scurvy
Common Name/Alternative Names: Scurvy, Vitamin C Deficiency
Scientific Name: Scorbutus
What is Scurvy?
Scurvy is a disease that often results from insufficient intake of Vitamin C that leads to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums and bleeding from most or all mucous membranes. A person with the condition looks pale, feels depressed and partially immobilised, and there are livid spots usually abundant on the thighs and legs.
How does Scurvy occur?
Scurvy is a simple disease that requires a simple life style problem that can easily have it occur in almost anyone. The inadequate intake of fresh fruits and vegetables leads to this condition and can attack the rich as well as the poor as Scurvy arises in the system not from an insufficient diet quantitatively, but from lacking the important mineral salts that are essential to health and vitality.
In modern times however, scurvy is not as common though it can be frequently found in infants. Again this arises from a poor diet mainly because artificial milk or cows milk contains less than half the vitamin C found in breast milk. Older children have also seen this disease arise amongst mentally retarded because they cannot chew, consequently fed with sloppy foods that negate the fresh fruit and vegetable factor.
The Symptoms of Scurvy
The onset of scurvy usually signals with the gradual development of anaemia. It is noted however that the chief feature of the disease is that the limbs become painful and tender from the haemorrhages under tight periosteum. The internal haemorrhage of the disease on the patient causes the signature black-and-blue marks that appear on the skin. From the first visible signs of scurvy, raised red spots appear on the skin around the common places of the hair follicles on the legs, buttocks, arms and back. With the combined forces of the haemorrhages from the hair follicles, the hair-producing the cells do not receive the nourishment they need for the hair to grow normally thus resulting in the skin becoming flecked with small lesions that begin to appear on the body.
The symptoms described are all within five months of which the disease has started to develop as well as the general accompaniment of joint pain, weakness of the person and gum disease. Gum disease from scurvy results from haemorrhages, making the gums weak and spongy. This in turn causes Dentin which lies below the enamel and is part of the root of the teeth, to break down which ultimately leads to the loosening of the teeth; making eating a near impossible task.
The causes and treatment of Scurvy
The cause of scurvy is generally the lack of intake of vitamin C or ascorbic acids, this however does not mean that the lack of intake of ascorbic acid within a week will cause the disease to abrupt within the body. Scurvy generally takes about 3 months of vitamin C deficiency to have the symptoms appear, though it may be earlier or later depending on the persons metabolism strength.
Scurvy is mainly due to the human body being not able to convert gluconate into ascorbate acid, therefore requiring the consumption of exogenous ascorbic acid or vitamin C; in other words the body needs rejuvenation from external sources vitamin C to help replenish the stores of ascorbate acid.
The disease itself takes place when the body stores of vitamin C drops below 350mg which usually takes about 3 months. The body will need to have at least a vitamin C store of 1500mg, the highest amount of vitamin C that the body pool will store, to prevent the onset of scurvy taking place. Essentially a balanced intake of fresh fruits and vegetables will help do the disease away.
The treatment of scurvy will do well if detected early, though if not there are some remedies that help reduce if not all the symptoms of the disease. Scurvy should be treated through the administration of 1g of ascorbic acid daily for 2-3 weeks of if the symptoms are severe, larger doses need to be taken to help prevent relapse of the disease. Ascorbic acid can be usually found in oranges where at least 50mg of vitamin C are present for each orange and amongst fresh vegetables. The best treatment for scurvy however is the use of Indian gooseberry where it is known to have the greatest amount of vitamin C present; these will have to be taken thrice daily with milk to deduce the symptoms quickly and effectively.
Like all diseases prevention is better than cure and it is recommended that at least one orange is consumed a day, which would help keep the bodys pool of ascorbic acid above the minimum of 350mg. Scurvy is known to be fatal 99% of time when left untreated, but since all that is required for full recovery is the resumption of normal vitamin C, scurvy is more than an ancient disease in modern times.
James Lind and Scurvy 1716-1794
James Lind was amongst the first of many to discover that citric juices contained something that counteracted the ravages of scurvy. He fell upon this when coming back from war in 1754 after he noticed a large amount of sailors having the symptoms of loose teeth, bleeding gums and haemorrhages.
He carried out an experiment on board H.M.S. Salisbury where he selected twelve men, all with symptoms of scurvy, and divided them into six pairs. He then gave each group different additions to their basic diet. Two men received a quart of cider a day, and two others were given an unspecified elixir three times a day. One pair was treated with seawater, and another was fed with a combination of garlic, mustard and horseradish. Two men were given spoonfuls of vinegar, and the last two were given two oranges and one lemon every day. All of the men experienced no change while the ones who were fed citrus juice experienced significant recovery. Lind had concluded that citrus fruits achieved superiority over other remedies.
After the discovery that citric fruits contained something, it was Lind that soon led to the direct discovery of vitamins.
