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Scurvy
I read and re-read Grant’s latest post on scurvy. It is particularly important to me.
I am at a loss and unsure how to proceed. Am I a freak that needs extra vitamin C or I made myself believe so?
As a child I used to eat lemons like candies. I would cut them in half, squeeze the juice into my mouth, lift the pith and the fibrous center with my finger and eat it, disposing of the outer skin. I loved lemons so mush that once at about 4 years old, I pinched a lemon from a grocery store.
Any articles about the benefits of ascorbic acid has always been music to my ears. I have been consuming large doses of it over the years.
Aside - but something tells me it is related: my colds are always vicious, last about 10 days and put me to bed for at least 4 of those days. I am not sure how, but I sense that my extreme colds and the need for vitamin C are somehow related.
Every time I attempt to eliminate the AA, I get blood filled blisters inside my mouth. I would love to stop supplementing but I am concerned that if a blood blister can pop in my mouth, what if it pops in my brain?
I have been on low vitamin A diet for over a year.
Hi @beata-2,
In that post I am not saying there's no benefit in taking vitamin C. Rather, I'm making the case that scurvy is not a vitamin C deficiency disease. I do think there is some benefit in taking vitamin C. I've read a few studies stating that it helps block the metabolism of vitamin A by preventing or rate limiting its conversion into retinoic acid.
Grant
Thank you @ggenereux2014. I am embarrassed to have missed the gist of your post. I am down with a terrible cold and have cotton wool for a brain at the moment.
I would still like to decipher how and if my terrible colds and a need for vitamin C are related. Perhaps the low vitamin A diet will put all the pieces together even though at this moment it feels like the journey is still long.
Quote from Beata on September 26, 2021, 6:12 amEvery time I attempt to eliminate the AA, I get blood filled blisters inside my mouth. I would love to stop supplementing but I am concerned that if a blood blister can pop in my mouth, what if it pops in my brain?
This reminds me of Behçet's syndrome.
ha, scurvy is such a meme - its basically an over stimulation of immune system happening in extremely rare cases(majority of out of C people like meat eaters have no scurvy symptoms).
Scurvy is definitely real...it can kill you(granted it can take years to manifest and the severity can be less or greater depending on circumstances)...most of the scurvy that happened on ships was due to eating tack (grains) and dried meat. So fresh meat plays a huge role. As for ascorbic acid, I use to be big into vitamin c supplementation, but ultimately it gave me too many unpleasant side effects(insomnia, anxiety, etc.) I don't find myself experiencing those things when I get vitamin c from food, preferably fruit. Also, they make AA from corn starch, so there's that too. Peel some apples, eat some bananas...ultimately, it's up to you what you do, but just a friendly suggestion.
Most likely, scurvy is a combination of factors of poisoning with vitamin A, lead, possibly copper and the use of excessive amounts of salt.
https://archive.org/details/handbookofgeogra02hirs/page/520/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater
I came across this table of anticipated scurvy epidemics. Note that it looks like almost all of them were among the sailors, soldiers and prisoners. Those people who were "fed by the state".
"Even in recent times the ships of the French navy have several times
suflfered severely from scurvy owing to the want of fresh vegetables. Of
special interest is the account by Leon, of the epidemic on board the
transport Castiglione, which was one of the vessels employed in conveying
the French troops back fi-om Mexico, in 1867. The first symptoms of
the epidemic appeared as early as the twentieth day out from Vera Cruz,
and in the course of the next ten days it had extended so much that, of
the whole crew (who were the only class on board to suff"er), one third
were more or less ill. Notwithstanding that fresh meat, acidulated
drinks, and lime-juice wei'e served out, the epidemic did not come to an
end; and it became necessary to make for the Azores, where large
quantities of fresh vegetables, potatoes, cabbages, and the like were taken
in. From the day when these were served out to the healthy and the
sick, new cases ceased to occur among the former, and convalescence
proceeded so rapidly among the latter that, when the ship arrived at
Toulon a fortnight after, all the more considerable signs of illness had
disappeared. Leon points out that neither the weather nor the hard-
ships of the service, nor any depression of the feelings had occasioned
the epidemic, but solely the want of fresh vegetable food, which was not
to be got at Vera Cruz. It is worthy of note, at the same time, that
cases occurred only among the crew, who had been already exposed in
part to the same deficient diet during the voyage out from France to
Vera Cruz ; and that not a single case of scurvy occurred in any of the
other ships of war or transports, none of which sailed direct to France
Irom the Mexican coast, but touched at the West Indies, where they
received abundant supplies of fresh vegetables."