Canadian doctors warned to be on the lookout for scurvy
Canadian doctors warned to be on the lookout for scurvy
Scurvy is a disease that likely conjures up images of sickly sailors from hundreds of years ago, but doctors in Canada are being warned to look out for the condition now, as a result of growing food insecurity.
A report published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) details the case study of a 65-year-old woman diagnosed with scurvy at a Toronto hospital last year.
The authors say the case points to the need for physicians to consider the possibility of scurvy, particularly among patients at higher risk for nutrient deficiencies, including people with low socioeconomic status and isolated older adults.
"This isn't the first case of scurvy that I've seen in my career so far," said Dr. Sally Engelhart, the study's lead author and an internal medicine specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
It's not a problem of food insecurity
It's a problem of nutritious food quality insecurity
I know many of my family members who almost live on mac and cheese in a box and feed their kids sugar bombs for breakfast ... one cousin of mine exclusively fed their kid nothing but chicken nuggets and fries (because thats all the kid wanted to eat) - (then they had to treat the kid at ten years of age for conditions with their gall bladder) ... another distant relative fed their kid tons of junk food and by the time the kid was 18, he had runaway diabetes and he died just recently at 40 years of age of heart disease.
These are the kinds of problems caused by a society where we drive all the wealth to a few dozen people at the expense of making the lives of everyone else as miserable as possible. The wealthy attain their wealth by selling us a cheaper degraded food supply that makes them more money while also making us all unwell. The wealthy also make money on our unhealthy lifestyles by selling us the same drugs that are supposed to help our diabetes, heart disease and weight issues
I don't buy fast food any more because it scares me .... its basically investing in your own early death by eating small amounts of poison over a long period of time.
Yep, a friend had me over once around lunch time. They offered lunch, we opened the cupboards. I kid you not, 3 full cupboards of KD mac and cheese. Me, coming from parents who drilled into me the importance of a varied diet, was astounded that people lived like this.
Same here ... when I was a teen one of my friends in high school offered me to go to his house for lunch one day. I didn't think anything of it and expected a decent meal, even just KD which everyone thought was normal.
He put a piece of plain white bread on a plate, heated a can of gravy and poured a bit of it over the bread ... that was lunch for him ... and a can of coke to go with it.
A generation ago, my family and friends (we're all indigenous), many of the older people died of cancers related to intestine, gastro, bowel ... they were all average weight but many died of these terrible cancers because they all ate a lot of canned and processed foods. Generations now are all overweight and suffering from diabetes and heart disease.
Broccoli is a good source of vitamin C, per weight it's better than oranges. Frozen broccoli is pretty accessible and easy to add to many foods.
I use the stems for soup and eat the florets raw or in food or sauces.
I wish we did a better job educating kids on nutrition, I know very little about it except the odd article I read.
This may be an outrageous thought process, but I genuinely wonder if the comparative wealth of the 60s and 70s kids contributed significantly to the loss of knowledge on how to make decently nutritious food for cheap.
My parents were well off, mostly as a result of being born when they were. My mum tried to cook but never really had to contend with how to get by with the odd bits of food, ends of vegetables, etc. Now that it's 2024, I'm finding that my grandmother's old recipes are supremely more practical than my mother's recipes because they don't rely on having only the premium meats and only the best parts of the vegetables. I wonder how much cultural and culinary knowledge was diminished as a result of a generation or two of high food waste.
In 1970 I was one of the three recorded cases of scurvy in Canada. I was young poor and very often hungry. The doctor I finally saw was incredulous. I was the first case of scurvy he had ever seen. He gave me a prescription and told me to go buy some oranges. I told him I had no money for either so he bought me the prescription and the oranges out of his own pocket. I have been forever thankful.
The story of scurvy is wild. It keeps getting cured and then reappears. Crazy that's it's coming back again.
The First Nations combated scurvy by making a tea from pine tree needles.
Just an FYI for anyone who is also food poor and at risk.
You can also make rose hip tea. One rose hip has more vitamin C than an orange.
Considering some people diets I would have expected it to be an issue sooner, however so much food is fortified with extra vitamins I feel you have to try HARD to avoid vitamin C / have a super narrow diet.
Or be poor, or live in a food desert, or live in remote regions where a bag of oranges can run $50 or more.
If you or any other poor person is looking for an affordable and tasty source of C, it's easy to ferment cabbage into sauerkraut with little more than some repurposed containers from recycling bins, optionally some plastic wrap, and some salt. Fresh sauerkraut tastes amazing and is loaded with vitamin C. Most other vegetables that you can get your hands on for cheap or free also work in a pinch.
It's pizza pops all the way down
I had to double check but yes 0%, then it might depend what you drink with it.