Talk:Scurvy

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Scurvy is included in the 2007 Wikipedia for Schools, or is a candidate for inclusion in future versions. Please maintain high quality standards, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the CDs.

There's a fair amount of statements with [citation needed] on the page... maybe someone could find citations...

scurvy"However, vitamin C is destroyed by the process of pasteurization, so babies fed with ordinary bottled milk sometimes suffer from scurvy if they are not provided with adequate vitamin supplements. Virtually all commercially available baby formulas contain added vitamin C for this reason." I think this is in contradiction with what one can read on the Vitamin C page...

Some people have been using this page as a source for school essays which, unfortunately, might not be entirely accurate. It's unlikely that Barlow was the first person to describe the disease - it was identified at least as early as 1746 by James Lind, which he published in his "A Treatise of the Scurvy" in 1753, available at http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/trial_records/17th_18th_Century/lind/lind_tp.html . Page updated to reflect that.

I never had scurvy....and that's a good thing.

Me either i never had scurvy and by the sound of the bad stuff i do not want it either. i am doing a research paper at school on scurvy and this site was a lot of help to me.......thank you!!!!

i'm also doing a research paper for school and like you said i wouldn't want it either and the site is very helpful thank you very much

i like this site it helps me a lot, but i didn't find out the cause of the disease PLEASE HELP ME.....

The very first words of the article: Scurvy is a disease that results from insufficient intake of vitamin C. By the way, you have TWO keys called 'shift', please learn to use them appropriately. --Kickstart70-T-C 15:01, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

and its actually a deficiency disease not just a disease (doing some homework an i noticed that. its changed)- Junkbot44 17:07, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] cause known to folk medicine

What does this mean?

...its cause was known to folk medicine for generations.

Obviously they didn't know that it was caused by lack of vitamin C. What folk medicine are we talking about? Western folk medicine? Chinese folk medicine? And "for generations" doesn't make sense -- generations beginning when and ending when? I'm going to take this out.--24.52.254.62 03:41, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Junk food diets

This is far from encyclopedic, but I'll throw it in the discussion as its amusing. The claim of junk food diets causing modern scurvy has been borne out at least once. My former boss' college roommate was living on essentially a diet of bourbon and Doritos for a semester. He became symptomatic and went to the ER. The only reason it was caught was because the student assistant on duty that day happened to be doing his thesis paper on obsolete diseases of the Renaissance. Vitamin C was prescribed, resulting in the patient both improving and feeling like an idiot. Laughter was apparently had by the medical staff. Murple 18:42, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

With a bit of digging I found some documentary evidence of scurvy from junk food diets in a few journal sources. I'll list them here for reference in case somebody decides it's a myth (Collabi 03:49, 21 March 2007 (UTC)):
Davies IJ, Temperley JM. A case of scurvy in a student. Postgrad Med J. 1967 Aug;43(502):549-50.
Sthoeger ZM, Sthoeger D. Scurvy from self-imposed diet. Harefuah. 1991 Mar 15;120(6):332-3.
Ellis CN, Vanderveen EE, Rasmussen JE. Scurvy. A case caused by peculiar dietary habits. Arch Dermatol. 1984 Sep;120(9):1212-4.
McKenna KE, Dawson JF. Scurvy occurring in a teenager. Clin Exp Dermatol. 1993 Jan;18(1):75-7.

[edit] my recent revision

Yesterday, I removed from the article a section on humorous "scurvy awareness" events at Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon University, including the antics of the Johns Hopkins Science Fiction Association. I went searching through the history looking for evidence of recent vandalism, but apparently that passage had been part of the article for some time. I deleted it because it was not remotely encyclopedic and only tangentially relevant to the topic of the article. If anyone should want to revert my edit, please explain why that material needs to be part of an article on this disease. Thanks. Marco polo 15:25, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Consistency problem?

The prognosis section states that untreated scurvy is NEVER fatal.

Yet two sections later in the History section scurvy often killed "large numbers of the passengers...".

So, is it fatal or isn't it? Tenorcnj 17:26, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

its fatal.- Junkbot44 17:07, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Uhhh...

" Scurvy shrings your penis down to half its size. " I'm questioning this.

68.109.84.51 06:37, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Scurvy in nonhuman animals

I added a brief section on scurvy in animals. Primates and guinea pigs are susceptible. It may be useful to expand this section a little. --B.d.mills 11:21, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pathophysiology

This section is not very freindly to anyone other than scientists and should be rephrased. This is Wikipedia- a resource for everyone- not a Scientific Encyclopedia.

[edit] "partially immobilized"

What in heaven's name does that mean, in paragraph one? It's not explained or elaborated upon, and because of that, sounds silly or specious. Softlavender (talk) 15:34, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Official Website of International Scurvy Awareness Day

I'm pretttty sure this site is a joke. From the inclusion of limecat (a well known internet meme) to their inclusion of the sailor from The Simpsons as a "celebrity against Scurvy" - It doesn't seem very legit. kwaal (talk) 15:28, 15 February 2008 (UTC)