United States: Doctors are warning that scurvy, a disease caused by not getting enough vitamin C, might be coming back. This could be very much related to the rising cost of living and more people having weight loss surgery. This particular and specific information which comes from a case reported in the journal BMJ Case Reports, where doctors treated a middle-aged man with scurvy. It’s a reminder to make sure we’re getting enough vitamin C in our diets!
Scurvy is easy to treat where, as it is a disease that was last thought to affect sailors in the period of the renaissance, it may be easily and very normally confused with other conditions such as inflamed blood vessels (vasculitis) and can lead to fatal bleeding, note the authors.
As reported by Medicalxpress, symptoms may develop after as early as one month of taking any vitamin C amount than 10mg per day.
As reported by Medicalxpress, the authors saw a middle-aged man who presented with bilateral exacerbation of tiny painful red-brown pinpoints skin lesion resembling a rash. He was passing through clotorrhoea and was anaemic.
He is negative for inflammatory, autoimmune, and blood disorders, and there was no sign of internal bleeding when scanned for. In the same manner, a skin biopsy did not provide an indication of the causative agent.
He developed rasher while in hospital. And, when he was subsequently asked how he was getting on, the informant confessed he was low on funds and had little fruit and vegetables in his diet. He added that he sometimes went for long periods without eating anything at all.
He had also ceased taking dietary supplements that he had been advised to take after other bariatric surgery procedures, telling the court that he could not afford them.
Blood values used to determine a general nutritional status was extremely low; vitamin C was undetectable and other nutrient levels were also very low. His diagnosis was scurvy, for which he received 1g vitamin C, 5000 iu vitamin D3, folic acid and multivitamins daily; his rash and pains resolved.
This is only one case report and even though we do not know at the moment the current rate of scurvy prevalence it is still considered as a rather rare condition.
However, the authors say that “Scurvy is still considered a disease that only affects developing nations, or less often, the developed world.” The cost of living is also on the rise and families cannot afford good quality nutritious foods, there have been many reports of scurvy occurring from the complications following the bariatric surgery, they add.
Other risk factors for scurvy include alcoholism, smoking eating disorders, low household, income obesity, kidney dialysis and the drugs that interfere with vitamin C absorption such as steroids and those that curb stomach acid production proton pump inhibitors they highlight.
Our patient had multiple risk factors and namely poor dietary habits Obesity previous bariatric surgery, use of proton pump inhibitors they highlight.
Our patients had multiple risk factors which namely has poor dietary habits and obesity and the previous bariatric surgery, use of proton pump inhibitors and low-income status. His history of iron, vitamin D and folate deficiencies were also clues to his underlying.