It can lead to anemia, debility, exhaustion, spontaneous bleeding, pain in the limbs, and especially the legs, swelling in some parts of the body, and sometimes ulceration of the gums and loss of teeth. Scurvy has been known since ancient Greek and Egyptian times. It is often associated with sailors in the 15th to 18th centuries, when long sea voyages made it hard to get a steady supply of fresh produce. Many died from the effects. It also occurred during the Irish potato famine in and the American Civil War.
The most recent documented outbreak was in Afghanistan in , following war and a drought. Modern cases of scurvy are rare, especially in places where enriched breads and cereals are available, but it can still affect people who do not consume enough vitamin C. Scurvy happens when there is a lack of vitamin C, or ascorbic acid. The deficiency leads to symptoms of weakness, anemia, gum disease , and skin problems. This is because vitamin C is needed for making collagen , an important component in connective tissues.
Connective tissues are essential for structure and support in the body, including the structure of blood vessels. A lack of vitamin C will also affect the immune system, absorption of iron, metabolism of cholesterol and other functions. It is also needed for synthesizing dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and carnitine, needed for energy production. Symptoms of vitamin C deficiency can start to appear after 8 to 12 weeks.
Early signs include a loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue , irritability, and lethargy. Within 1 to 3 months , there may be signs of:. In time, the person will show signs of generalized edema, severe jaundice , destruction of red blood cells, known as hemolysis, sudden and spontaneous bleeding, neuropathy , fever , and convulsions. It can be fatal. Infants with scurvy will become anxious and irritable.
They may experience pain that causes them to assume a frog-leg posture for comfort. There may also be subperiosteal hemorrhage, a type of bleeding that occurs at the ends of the long bones. The best sources of vitamin C are fruit and vegetables. The best way to get enough vitamins and minerals is to eat a healthy, balanced diet. It's important to speak to a GP or midwife before taking any supplements or making changes to your diet during pregnancy. Page last reviewed: 23 November Next review due: 23 November Causes of scurvy Scurvy is caused by not having enough vitamin C in your diet for at least 3 months.
Things that increase your risk of scurvy Although scurvy is rare, you may be more at risk if you: have no fresh fruits or vegetables in your diet for a while eat very little food at all — possible reasons include treatments that make you feel very sick all the time such as chemotherapy or an eating disorder such as anorexia smoke, as smoking reduces how much vitamin C your body gets from food have a long-term dependency on drugs or alcohol that affects your diet have a poor diet while pregnant or breastfeeding, because the body needs more vitamin C at these times Babies, children and older people who find it hard to have a healthy diet may also be more at risk of scurvy.
Scurvy itself is still a health problem in the United States and elsewhere. The highlight for me is a scene in The Ancient Mariner where the ancient mariner is looking over the side of the ship and sees water snakes.
His heart goes out to them. He loves them. That is one side of the story. The other side is that scurvy is always marked in journals and literature with the problem of telling the story because what you have seen somehow belongs only to you. That feeling of being alone is remarkable. They were most always in the company of hundreds of other sailors on a ship. What surprised me was the poetic potential of scurvy, with its awfulness and that terrible sense of isolation, when the possibility of ecstatic delights was inconceivable and incommunicable.
That kind of privacy fascinated me. Why, of all diseases, was it the most secret? Not just about scurvy, but about lots of things! Simon Worrall curates Book Talk. Follow him on Twitter or at simonworrallauthor. All rights reserved. Share Tweet Email. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city.
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