Jakarta –
Long ago, pirates, explorers and sailors in the United States (US) were stricken with a mysterious disease that caused them to suffer slow and painful deaths. Now, the disease is making a comeback, in the most unexpected places.
Scabies, the name of the disease, is caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, which is generally found in fruits and vegetables. Early symptoms of this disease include fatigue, nausea, and joint pain, but later it can cause swollen gums, severe bruising, damaged hair, and bleeding in the joints and muscles.
In children, this can affect the bones, causing stunted growth. In the worst cases, scurvy can cause death due to complications such as internal bleeding. Fortunately, scurvy is actually easy to treat by increasing the amount of vitamin C in the diet.
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Although scurvy was first documented in 1550 BC by ancient Egyptians, it is perhaps most famous for its impact on 18th century sailors. Being at sea for long periods meant there was a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables to eat, so disease plagued the pirates, and had a severe impact on the British Royal Navy, whose sailors were more likely to be killed by diseases such as scurvy than by battle. In fact, scurvy was thought to be the greatest cause of death at sea, surpassing violent storms, shipwrecks, battles, and other diseases.
The disease also affected various explorers, such as Robert Falcon Scott’s 1901 Discovery expedition to Antarctica, before the ill-fated 1910 expedition that led to his death. Although Scott was against the slaughter of penguins, his team working on scurvy found that eating fresh seal and penguin meat could significantly improve their symptoms.
Today, scurvy is common in developing countries, where malnutrition is most common. But scurvy appears to be making a comeback in countries where people should have access to plenty of vitamin C-rich foods.
This incident is explored in a new documentary called Vitamania. Medical doctor Eric Churchill, who practices in Springfield, Massachusetts, and appears in the film, explained that his team alone had diagnosed between 20 and 30 new cases of scurvy over the past six years, an extremely high number.
“Many people who have difficulty buying food tend to choose foods that are high in fat, high in calories and very filling,” Churchill said in the documentary as quoted by IFL Science.
“If you have a limited food budget, these are the foods that will fill you up and satisfy you more than eating fruits and vegetables,” he continued.
Therefore, those of low socio-economic status in rich countries are those affected by these nutritional diseases, and this is a problem that needs to be addressed.
“Scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) stands out in our minds as something very basic and easy to avoid, but these people end up falling victim to a disease that should not exist in the developed world,” Churchill said.
Various species in the animal kingdom, such as lemurs and slow lorises, can produce their own vitamin C. Unfortunately, humans cannot produce it, so our diet is very important. And it’s not just a lack of fruit and vegetables that can cause scurvy, the way we cook them can also have an impact. Cooking vegetables for too long can destroy the important vitamins in them.
For your information, excellent sources of vitamin C include tomatoes, oranges, peppers, guava, strawberries and coriander.
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(rns/afr)
2023-12-19 00:15:55
#Terrifying #Ancient #Disease #Reappears
