• Question: have you learned about scurvey.

    Asked by worldlife to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 25 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Blanka Sengerova

      Blanka Sengerova answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      I don’t think I ever learnet about scurvy in school or within a course but came across the history of it along the way somewhere. It is basically a disease that is caused by lack of vitamin C and makes for a good example of how a good controlled trial works because James Lind, who was trying to work out why so many sailors were dying of it (more than died in battles), conducted the first clinical trial by having pairs of sailor subjected to different treatments (cider, citrus fruit, salt water, sulphuric acid…) and comparing them to others who were given nothing. From this work he devloped the theory that citrus fruits were what helped to cure prevent/cure scurvy. It was only later that vitamin C was identified as the active compound.

    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      I think I first learned about scurvy in history (because, as Blanka said, lots of sailors used to get it because they had no access to fresh fruit and veg on their long journeys).

      It is caused by having too little vitamin C in your diet and the symptoms are definitely enough to make sure I eat fruit and veg! They include:

      -tiredness
      -blotches on your skin
      -sore and bleeding gums
      -losing your teeth
      -wounds that get full of pus and don’t heal

      Ew!

      Humans can’t make their own vitamin C but most animals can.

      Interestingly one animal that cannot is the guinea pig. That’s why if you have guinea pigs as pets you give them special guinea pig food and sometimes vitamin licks or vitamin in their water to make sure that they are getting enough vitamin C.

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