Episode 19 Scurvy: Thanks a lot, evolution.

Arr, mateys, climb aboard for a swash-buckling tale of when the high seas were full of disease! Today we’re covering a non-infectious but no less terrifying scourge that has wrecked millions of lives and sent even the bravest of sailors quivering in their boots: Scurvy. From the open ocean to the California gold rush to modern times, scurvy has been causing collagen breakdown throughout human history, and we can blame it all on…evolution?

HistoryBiology
Carpenter, Kenneth J. The history of scurvy and vitamin C. Cambridge University Press, 1988.Fain, Olivier. “Musculoskeletal manifestations of scurvy.” Joint bone spine 72.2 (2005): 124-128.
Sauberlich, Howard E. “A history of scurvy and vitamin C.” (1997). In Vitamin C in Health and Disease edited by Lester Packer and Jürgen FuchsChazan, Joseph A., and Steven Paul Mistilis. “The pathophysiology of scurvy: a report of seven cases.” The American journal of medicine 34.3 (1963): 350-358.
Wilson, Leonard G. “The clinical definition of scurvy and the discovery of vitamin C.” Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences 30.1 (1975): 40-60.Singh, Jyoti, et al. “Scurvy: a common co-morbid condition in severe acute malnutrition.” The Indian Journal of Pediatrics82.8 (2015): 761-762.
The Cambridge World History of Human Disease edited by Kenneth KipleMason, John B. “Lessons on nutrition of displaced people.The Journal of nutrition 132.7 (2002): 2096S-2103S.

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