My Old Friend Scurvy...

Discovering the "cure" for scurvy

About thirteen years ago I wrote about scurvy (see: http://just-got-lucky.blogspot.com/2010/11/ruinous-health-capital-spending.html).  I indicated that, due to the research of my Mrs. Wolf, I knew that large animals such as humans do not make enough vitamin C on their own (if at all) hence proper diet or supplementation is required.  But part of the story was not told...

Scurvy is a deficiency of vitamin C - if you don't know what it is you can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurvy).

A long time ago (decades before the article) I had noticed two things: occasional bleeding gums and plaque on my teeth.  In those days these things were not uncommon.  The bleeding gums were always, at least at that time, attributed to a lack of trips to the dentist.  Ditto for plaque.  I figured I was healthy - I ran and exercised, at what was considered "good food" at the time.  What could be wrong...?

These symptoms would come and go for no reason or pattern I could see.

Over the years Mrs. Wolf's research came into play and I realized what was wrong: subclinical scurvy (see this JAMA article from 1934: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/247759).

Supplements solved the problem - I've been taking 2g per day for about fifteen years at this point.  (This amount has nothing to do with the US RDA which is completely wrong, inadequate and dangerous - 65mg/day - just enough so that the symptoms of scurvy don't show...)

What's interesting is, that in today's modern times, everyone should be "healthy" - at least in regards to nutrition and vitamin C - right...?  All the vegans eating great, nutritious, healthy food - no one should have this deficiency, should they?

Recently this MedPageToday article caught my eye: Fatigue and Pain Sent Her to the ED: Medical Mystery Solved — YouTuber and physician Siobhan Deshauer, MD, delves into the case (https://www.medpagetoday.com/popmedicine/popmedicine/105459).  From the article: "Meet Jennifer. She is a healthy, active 54-year-old woman, who is currently training for a 5 km run. Over the past few months she has been having increasing fatigue and some knee pain, but she figured it was from all the extra running she has been doing."

Like me... interesting.

Now let's go through the doctor's thought process and the steps taken in this situation (in order from the article).  Feel free to google the costs yourselves:

1. "swelling in legs" - Action: MRI of both legs - Cost $400-$12,000 - Side Effects: negligible
2. "the team ordered a CT scan of her chest, abdomen, and pelvis, which didn't show any signs of cancer" - CT Scan - Cost: $300-$3,280 - Side Effects: (see: https://lwgat.blogspot.com/2012/06/ct-scans-known-cancer-cause-in-children.html)
3. "EMG [electromyography], which is the test that measures the electrical activity produced by a muscle" - Action: EMG Scan - Cost: $50-$500 per extremity - Side Effects: Unknown but probably negligible.
4. "low red cell blood count" - Action: reticulocyte count - Cost: $4-$59 - Side Effects: N/A
5. "skin biopsy" - planned but since the results would take days or weeks and Jennifer would need a blood transfusion before that this was not done.
6. "they noticed that Jennifer left a lot of food on her tray and she wasn't touching it" 

At point #6 (Jennifer is in the hospital, of course, so figure two days @ $2,800/day) Jennifer "explained that over the last 2 years she has been worried about allergies and intolerances to foods, so slowly she's been restricting her diet and cutting out foods that she suspected were causing her issues. At this point, she stopped eating all fruits and most vegetables without taking any new supplements".

(For those keeping score we are probably two days into it, adding a 1% chance of cancer from the CT scan, have spent about $7,500 - $22,000 depending on location and insurance.)

Little wonder it took so much money and time to figure this out given https://lwgat.blogspot.com/2012/07/md-no-knowledge-of-nutrition.html - yes, that's right, doctors don't learn about nutrition.  Perhaps there have been some changes since 2012 but I doubt it.

Mrs. Wolf, reading a $60 book on dog health and John Gault discussing it with her: Cost $60 w/no side effects.  Walmart vitamin C supplements (and others) $30/year.

Scurvy is not new.  "Limey's" - an American slang for British seamen was coined because the Brit's used limes and lemons to ward off scurvy during the British sea faring days (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limey).

What's new is ignorance.

Ignorance of health and what causes it.

(Image credit: https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/finding-the-cure-for-scurvy.6340/)