Vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) isn’t just an 18th-century sailor’s illness, in keeping with a case examine of a 65-year-old girl with mobility points and social isolation.
Commercial
The Ongoing Battle Towards Vitamin C Deficiency
In an article printed in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Affiliation Journal), clinicians describe how scurvy needs to be thought of in sufferers with irregular bleeding and nonspecific signs (1✔ ✔Trusted Supply
Scurvy in a 65-year-old girl with severely restricted operate and social helps
Go to supply
).
The affected person visited the emergency division at a downtown Toronto hospital for leg ache and weak point, pores and skin lesions, and discoloration. She additionally had a number of power well being situations. Her capacity to go grocery buying, cook dinner, and carry out different actions of each day residing was restricted due to mobility points, and he or she had little exterior assist. She subsisted largely on canned soup and fish, with no recent produce.
“This case presents a posh instance of meals insecurity manifesting as an unusual prognosis,” stated Dr. Sarah Engelhart, a normal internist at Mount Sinai Hospital and the College of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. “A unifying prognosis was uncovered solely after an in depth evaluation of her social and dietary historical past.”
Commercial
Scurvy Strikes Once more
Vitamin C deficiency is extra widespread than anticipated within the twenty first century, with a 5.9% prevalence in america and charges presumably as excessive as 25% in some teams with low socioeconomic standing in the UK.
As signs are sometimes nonspecific, resembling fatigue, weak point, and shortness of breath, prognosis could be difficult.
Commercial
Does Smoking Trigger Vitamin C Deficiency?
The affected person additionally smoked, which contributes to vitamin C deficiency. As soon as began on vitamin C remedy, her signs improved, and a blood check for vitamin C deficiency finally confirmed the prognosis.
Monitoring Vitamin C Deficiency
Clinicians needs to be alert to vitamin C deficiency when assessing sufferers, together with youngsters and remoted older adults, with restrictive consuming patterns (e.g., autism spectrum dysfunction or tea and toast weight loss program), who smoke cigarettes, who’ve a substance use dysfunction, or who’ve malabsorption syndrome. The authors urge vigilance in assessing for meals insecurity, which is a threat issue and impacts about 1 in 5 Canadian households.
References:
- Scurvy in a 65-year-old girl with severely restricted operate and social helps – (https://www.cmaj.ca/content material/196/33/E1144)
Supply-Eurekalert