Scurvy may cause gingival inflammation and hemorrhaging, a condition termed scorbutic gums.Scurvy may also cause an inflammation of the tongue and submucosal hemorrhaging, a condition termed scorbutic tongue.
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Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease that results from insufficient intake of vitamin C and leads to the formation of livid spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from almost all mucous membranes. The spots are most abundant on the thighs and legs, and a person with the ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. Scurvy was at one time common among sailors whose ships were out to sea longer than perishable fruits and vegetables could be stored and by soldiers who were similarly separated from these foods for extended periods. more...

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In infants, scurvy is sometimes referred to as Barlow's Disease, named after Sir Thomas Barlow (1845-1945), a British physician who first described it. Barlow's disease is different from Barlow's syndrome.

Scurvy is also known as Moeller's disease and Cheadle's disease.

Symptoms

Symptoms include:

  • weakness
  • joint pain
  • black-and-blue marks on the skin
  • gum disease
  • spongy gums

this is all caused by the lack of fresh fruit and veg


It takes about three months of vitamin C deprivation to begin inducing the symptoms of scurvy. Untreated scurvy is always fatal, but since all that is required for full recovery is the resumption of normal vitamin C intake, death by scurvy is rare in modern times.

History

Scurvy was probably first observed as a disease by Hippocrates. In the 13th century the Crusaders suffered from scurvy frequently, and it has inflicted terrible losses on both besieged and besieger in times of war. Scurvy was one of the limiting factors of marine travel, often killing large numbers of the passengers and crew on long-distance voyages. It even played a significant role in World War I.

The British civilian medical profession of 1614 knew that it was the acidic principal of citrus fruit which was lacking, although they considered any acid as acceptible when Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) was unavailable. In 1614 John Woodall (Surgeon General of the East India Company) published his book "The Surgion's Mate" as a handbook for apprentice surgeons aboard the companies ships. In it he describes scurvy as resulting from a dietry deficiency. His recommendation for its cure is Fresh Food or, if not available, Oranges,Lemons,Limes and Tamarinds, or as a last resort, Oil of Vitriol. (Sulphuric Acid)

However, it was not until 1747 that the treatment and prevention of scurvy by supplementation of the diet with citrus fruit such as lemons and limes was introduced into the British Navy by James Lind.

The plant known as "scurvy grass" acquired its name from the observation that it cured scurvy, but this was of no great help to those who spent months at sea. During sea voyages, it was discovered that sauerkraut was of use in preventing scurvy. In the Royal Navy's Arctic expeditions in the 19th century, for example, it was widely believed that scurvy was prevented by good hygiene on board ship, regular exercise, and maintaining the morale of the crew, rather than by a diet of fresh food, so that Navy expeditions continued to be plagued by scurvy even while fresh meat was well-known as a practical antiscorbutic among civilian whalers and explorers in the Arctic. At the time Robert Falcon Scott made his two expeditions to the Antarctic in the early 20th century, the prevailing medical theory was that scurvy was caused by "tainted" canned food. It was not until 1932 that the connection between vitamin C and scurvy was established.

Read more at Wikipedia.org


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Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail - Book Review
From Natural History, 3/1/04 by Laurence A. Marschall

by Stephen J. Bown St. Martin's Press, 2004; $23.95

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, golden years for European imperial sea powers, were ghastly times for sailors. Ships' quarters were crowded, tours of duty stretched on for months or years, and the threat of attack by pirates or by hostile navies was ever present. The worst threat, however, was scurvy, a wasting disease with no known cause and no sure cure. Long into a voyage, when a sailor was weary and longed for home, his joints would begin to ache, his gums would go soft, and his breath would smell of dank decay. Then, bit by bit, his body would rot away. Masters of vessels in those years, certain that half the crew would die, many from scurvy, routinely signed on twice the men needed to run the ship. On the journey out, the crew's quarters stank of overcrowding; on the journey home, they stank of death.

Today, in an age of nutritional supplements, it seems remarkable that it took so long to pinpoint a dietary deficiency (of vitamin C, as we now know) as the cause of scurvy, and that the disease is so readily avoided by a daily spot of citrus juice. Part of the problem, writer Stephen J. Bown suggests, is that medical theories of the time had no concept of dietary requirements, or any notion of preventative medicine. Many doctors thought scurvy was caused by bad air or insufficient exercise in cramped crew quarters, both of which disturbed certain body fluids (or "humors") and threw them out of balance. Everyone knew that a scorbutic (scurvy-suffering) sailor could recover by coming ashore, but the recovery was only seen as confirmation that shipboard life was intrinsically unhealthy.

In time, however, a few freethinkers did come close to understanding the disease. In 1747 James Lind, a young naval surgeon with England's coastal fleet, conducted a controlled experiment aboard the HMS Salisbury. He administered six of the most frequently prescribed scurvy "remedies" to a selected group of suffering sailors: two men drank a quart of cider a day; two gargled elixir of vitriol (a strong acid); two got spoonfuls of vinegar; two downed seawater; two ate oranges and lemons; and two ate a paste made of balsam, garlic, mustard seed, myrrh, and radish root, all washed down with barley water. Lind carefully recorded the results. The citrus eaters, of course, made a full recovery; the cider drinkers showed a slight improvement (cider, according to a table at the back of Bown's book, contains a trace of vitamin C). The other sailors showed no improvement at all. Lind's findings were borne out a decade and a half later on the round-the-world voyages of Captain James Cook, who kept his men virtually scurvy-free by providing a regular diet of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Both Lind and Cook wrote about their experiences with scurvy remedies, and though their works were published and widely circulated, in multiple editions, their findings had surprisingly little immediate effect on the health of the men in the navies. Many doctors found Lind's theory of the disease unconvincing--his idea that it was caused by blocked perspiration was even wilder than the prevailing theory of unbalanced humors.

The effectiveness of citrus as a cure did not quickly gain wide acceptance either. Some doubters may have confused Lind's recommendation for small doses of citrus, as a preventative, with the much larger doses needed to cure critically ill patients. At any rate, vinegar, malt drinks, and a host of other useless remedies continued to be doled out to sailors throughout the 1800s. Only through the growing weight of shipboard experience, plus the efforts of a few influential naval officers, did bad theory give way to sound practice, and scurvy begin to vanish from the sailor's life. Today it is consigned largely to the pages of history--none more informative and readable than those of Stephen Bown.

COPYRIGHT 2004 American Museum of Natural History
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

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