Posted on Feb 12, 2011 under Cancer |
Ideas about the cause of lung cancer have been so dominated by recognition of the effect of smoking for the last forty years that it is sometimes easy to forget that there may be other important causal factors and that lung cancer still occurs in non-smokers. The effect of smoking is so strong that it can be quite difficult to unravel other causes, because the presence of a few smokers in any group will so alter the statistics. However, there are undoubtedly other factors at work in the development of lung cancer and many of them can now be judged.
Passive smoking and the effects of asbestos and industrial hazards can act through atmospheric pollution to cause lung cancer. General atmospheric pollution by coal smoke was probably not a very important cause of lung cancer, although it may have contributed to some lung cancers in smokers.
Radon gas is radioactive and is present in some rocks. Certain geological conditions allow it to be released from the soil and, in some parts of the world, it appears to accumulate with its radioactive products in houses. In the United Kingdom this is most apparent in Devon and Cornwall and in parts of Derbyshire where the concentration of radon gas in houses may be much higher than in the country in general. However, lung cancer is not especially common in Cornwall and the whole question of a relationship between radon and lung cancer is now the subject of careful examination. Studies from Scandinavia and the United Scares do suggest that there may be a link between background radon concentrations and lung cancer, and if this is confirmed in Britain, some houses may well nerd specialized ventilation.
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Posted on Feb 06, 2011 under Cancer |
Urinary bladder polyps, like colon polyps, can also become cancerous. They are easily removed by surgical procedures, but 70 percent of them will recur or new polyps will form in these patients.
Approximately 120 people have been enrolled in a study being conducted at West Virginia University to test whether four nutrients can decrease the risk of future bladder polyps after surgical removal. Patients were divided into two groups: one group took a multiple vitamin at the Recommended Dietary Allowance levels; the other group took the same multivitamin but additional doses of vitamins А, В6, and C, as well as E. В6 has been known to decrease recurrence rates in bladder cancer studies in humans. Vitamins A and С have been used in used in animal studies with very good results, but vitamin E has never been used in this setting before. While the study is still ongoing, preliminary results again indicate that the extra doses of nutrients have decreased the risk of recurring bladder polyps.
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Posted on Jan 20, 2011 under Arthritis |
You have identified a problem and established a reasonable goal. How do you proceed? How can you overcome barriers and reach your goal? You have several choices. You can:
• eliminate the problem
• circumvent it
• work with the obstacle
• modify the goal.
Each of these methods is effective in different situations. This is where imagination and creativity come into play.
Eliminating the Problem
After several weeks of having trouble rising from a chair because of arthritis in your knee, you discover that it is easier for you to get out of seats that are elevated. You then eliminate the problem by placing a firm, three-inch pillow in the seats of the chairs you will use. Your arthritis is still there, but the problem is solved.
A number of similar modifications can be made in your home and workplace environment to eliminate physical obstacles. In many ways, physical obstacles are the easiest to confront. But other kinds of problems can also be solved by eliminating the problem. Let your imagination expand the boundaries of your ideas.
Circumventing the Problem
Problem solving often involves working around a problem by, for example, changing habits and schedules. A common dilemma for people with RA is a workday that begins early, when morning stiffness restricts movement. One way around this problem would be to start the workday later if this can be arranged with your employer. Morning stiffness will not disappear, but no longer will it interfere with your work.
Working with the Obstacle
People often find that working with an obstacle that cannot be modified poses a serious challenge. Imagine, for example, that you are a trained data entry person and you have arthritis in your fingers. You must work at the computer, but prolonged typing causes your fingers to hurt and cramp up. You enjoy your job and don’t want to change it. To solve this problem you must first accept that the obstacle (arthritis in your finger joints) exists and then move on from there.
In this situation numerous options are available to someone who has developed coping strategies. One might be to take frequent breaks at regular intervals, before fatigue and pain develop. During breaks from the computer, you can perform other tasks that you have put aside for such times. You might want to keep a list of these tasks near the computer so you will always have other work to turn to, and you will not feel as if you are wasting time.
You can also call upon two interpersonal skills, communication and negotiation, and discuss with your supervisor your wish to assume other job responsibilities to replace some of the time you formerly spent at the computer. Expanding your job description to include other useful, but less physically demanding, responsibilities will balance your day. While you’re making changes, you may also want to diversify your skills- For example, you might want to enroll in some courses that would prepare you to take on new tasks.
Work toward becoming more organized and imaginative. You may find that your productivity (and value to your employer) actually increases when you stretch yourself and your horizons.
Modifying the Goal
This is frequently a useful avenue for solving problems. Modifying the goal might involve changing your timetable for completion or dividing a task into mini-goals. Once you have established that your goal is realistic, you’ll still need to reassess it and modify it along the way. It’s this fine-tuning that will allow you to succeed in your endeavor. Developing skills such as effective communication, organization, and scheduling is a crucial part of problem solving. Using these skills should not be considered overcompensation. Rather, using them will allow you to make the most of your potential. Armed with these skills, people with arthritis often become more productive in every aspect of their lives.
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Posted on Jan 13, 2011 under Anti-Psychotics |
a thirty-two-year-old mother suffered sexual obsessions so intensely guilt-provoking that she would do anything to prevent them from forming in her mind:
karen: I’ll be changing my baby’s diapers when suddenly 1 begin to have a bad sexual thought. I don’t even know exactly what it is. because I don’t let myself think it. I stop it before it gets started. I’ll say prayers over and over. I’ll watch TV. When nothing else works, I’ll even start to imagine killing myself It’s not that 1 want to hurt myself—I wouldn’t because of my baby—but if 1 put a strong image into my mind of chopping my own head off, it keeps the other thoughts away. Yesterday I spent all day long thinking about that. I absolutely won’t let those sexual thoughts come into my mind no matter what. No way.
anna: I used to get the same kind of thoughts. I would be changing diapers, and I would worry that I was doing it in a sexual way, or maybe that, somehow, I was enjoying it sexually. Those thoughts used to really bother me. I would do all kinds of rituals to stop them. I drove my husband crazy asking him for reassurance that they weren’t true. What has been most helpful is realizing that they don’t come from me. Those thoughts are not who I really am. If I think about it deep and hard, I know I wouldn’t do anything sexual to my baby. That’s just not me. It’s OCD.
Karen employed “That’s not me! It’s OCD” from that day on. It must be acknowledged that until recently most mental health professionals not only eschewed this strategy but contradicted it. Freud hypothesized that self-tormenting thoughts were due to unconscious conflicts caused by repressed urges, an idea that was accepted by several generations of American psychiatrists and psychologists. As a result, people like Anna were told that, yes, they did have violent, murderous urges deep down inside them and that really the only way to overcome these urges was through years of psychoanalysis. Untold numbers of OCDers were harmed by this mistaken idea.
The leaders in the field now recognize that obsessions do not issue from one’s deepest self. They are passing thoughts that gain significance only because of the OCDer’s neurochemical inability to process fearful thoughts. Neuropsychiatrist Jeff Schwartz, author of the recent, highly successful OCD book Brainlock, emphasizes that OCDers of all ages should remind themselves, “That’s not me. It’s my brain sending me a false message.” Schwartz encourages patients to see OCD as a war. In order to fight it, OCDers must maintain “mindful awareness” of the fact that it is not they themselves but a biochemical disorder that is the cause of OCD’s symptoms. Duke’s John March, leading expert in the treatment of childhood OCD and author of How I Chased OCD off My Land, teaches children to give OCD a name, such as “butt head,” “stupid,” or “the playground bully.” Doing this, he explains, helps children get distance from OCD and motivates them to fight the disorder using behavior therapy.
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Posted on Jan 06, 2011 under Anti-Infectives |
The decision to admit a patient to the hospital for community-acquired pneumonia is probably the most important decision made in the care of an adult with community- acquired pneumonia. Clinicians should use their clinical judgment when contemplating hospital admission. In addition, the patient’s ability to take oral medications, support structure in place at home, ongoing substance abuse, or other rare coexisting illnesses that complicate the clinical picture should also be considered when contemplating admission.
To help decide hospital admission, prognostic scoring rules have been developed and validated. The Pneumonia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) was designed to predict patient outcomes and suggest the need for hospitalization. This scoring system groups patients into five classes based on history, vital sign abnormalities, and results of diagnostic testing. The low risk of death in classes I and II has suggested that these patients be considered for outpatient therapy. Class III patients have an intermediate risk of death and may be considered for a brief hospital observation period or outpatient therapy. Class IV and class V patients are at high risk of death and should be admitted for inpatient therapy. One advantage of the PORT study is that it can classify patients into the lowest group on the basis of history and physical findings alone, without the need for extensive diagnostic testing. This is particular useful in treating outpatients with community-acquired pneumonia.
Several prognostic factors have been identified in the development of the scoring system. The clinician should be aware of these in making decisions on where to treat patients with community acquired pneumonia. Admission to an intensive care unit is indicated for patients with severe disease who are at high risk of poor outcome. If a patient requires mechanical ventilation or is in shock, the need for admission to the intensive care unit is apparent. Other clinical clues that highlight the need for admission to the intensive care unit include acute renal failure, confusion, tachypnea (respiratory rate exceeding 30 breaths/minute), multilobar disease on chest radiograph, or high supplemental oxygen requirements. Patients with one or more of these features should be considered for admission to the intensive care unit.
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Posted on Dec 30, 2010 under Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid |
Usually the onset of narcolepsy occurs during childhood or adolescence. Narcolepsy is thought to arise from some kind of/ biochemical imbalance or defect in the central nervous system, one that seems to affect the mechanism that activates the “on/ off” cycle of sleep. It is not contagious, but those who report a family history of the disorder are 60 percent more likely to develop it than other people.
By studying the EEG tracings of narcoleptics, researchers have learned that victims are unable to keep the REM phase of the sleep cycle in its proper place. Instead, REM bursts onto the sleep scene before it has been invited. Nearly three out of four narcoleptics begin their sleep cycles with a REM phase, unlike normal people, whose first REM period may not come for an hour or more after onset of sleep. The overall percentage of REM sleep is the same, but the periods are fragmented. Researchers are investigating the possible role in triggering narcoleptic attacks played by acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter thought to be involved with instigating the REM phase. One other clue to the cause may be the fact that narcoleptics show increased blood flow in the brain, especially through the brain stem, where REM sleep is regulated. (Other aspects of sleep architecture are also affected by narcolepsy: those with the disorder fall asleep much more quickly when they go to bed—usually within five minutes or less, compared with fifteen to thirty minutes for normal individuals.)
Abnormal REM sleep may account to one extent or another for most of the classic symptoms of narcolepsy. For example, experiencing dream-filled REM sleep immediately after dropping off may be perceived and reported by the sleeper as a hallucination.
Also, as we have seen, a mechanism exists to suppress muscle activity and prevent us from acting out our REM dreams. When a narcoleptic experiences a sudden burst of REM sleep, this muscle suppressant may suddenly be activated, which in turn may trigger cataplexy or sleep paralysis.
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Posted on Dec 23, 2010 under Herbal |
Alfalfa (Medico Satina)
Alfalfa is one the most nutritionally versatile herbs discovered so far. The Arabs who discovered it, called it the “King of kings” of plants and the “Father of all foods”. The Persians knew it as one of the nature’s most healing grasses. This herb is a valuable source of vitamins A, B, D, E and G. It also has some vitamin С and K. Of special value in alfalfa, is the rich quality, quantity and proper balance of various minerals, which are very much needed for the proper functioning of the different organs of the body.
Alfalfa is an outstanding alkaline food, which makes it a valuable remedy for cancer as it detoxifies the body. These seeds, known as king of sprouts, are very valuable in building up the immune system, for healing cancer, especially stomach cancer and other diseases.
Brahmi (Herpestis monniera or Bасоpa monniera)
Brahmi, a well known Indian herb can be used as a valuable aid in cancer treatment. This herb increases vitality, strengthens mental faculties and various organs of the body. It thus helps to fight diseases, including cancer. It has been mentioned in the ancient Indian Medical treatise Charak Samhita, that this herb cures all kinds of diseases.
Colchicum (Colchicum luteum)
The herb Colchicum (Hirantutiya) is a medicine of great repute in Afghanistan and northern India. The medicinal properties of this herb were well known even to the Arabs. The chief constituent of this herb is colchicine, an alkaloid which occurs in the form of yellow flakes, crystals or as whitish yellow amorphous powder. The effect of this alkaloid has been tested on cancerous tissues and it has been found that the drug arrests division of cells of the cancerous tissues and also makes them more susceptible to X-ray treatments. Further experiments are, however, being conducted in various laboratories to find out its efficacy in the treatment of cancers.
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Posted on Dec 16, 2010 under Gastrointestinal |
What is a Proper Meal?
Some people cling to the idea that a nutritious meal must be of a mixture of protein and starch, such as: steak pie, cabbage, potatoes and gravy, or fish, peas and chips. Not only is it unnecessary to eat this way but it can also put a great strain on the digestive system. Research has shown that starch – bread, potatoes, sugar – and protein – meat, fish, eggs and poultry – require different gastric juices for digestion, so if they are eaten together, neither food has the medium necessary to break it down efficiently, digestion is slowed down, and gas, bloating and indigestion can result. This is explained fully in Food Combining for Health: Don’t Mix Foods That Fight by Doris Grant and Jean Joice, (published by Thorsons). It can be very liberating for you and your digestive system to give up old-fashioned ideas. If your diet is varied it is perfectly sound nutrition to eat nothing but apples or grains or vegetables for a meal as long as you eat enough. Proper meals are adequate amounts of a variety of clean foods.
Cleaning Up the Diet
Note: any dietary suggestions contained in this book are only for people who are overweight or the correct weight for their height and build. People who have a diet from their doctor or people who have ever had an eating disorder or severe depression must consult their doctor before changing their eating habits.
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Posted on Sep 28, 2010 under General health |
The symptoms of scurvy are so well described in the textbook Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease by Goodhart and Shils, that I cannot do better than quote from their description.
‘The onset of adult scurvy can be detected between 60 and 90 days after the beginning of Vitamin C deficiency in the diet. The earliest signs which can easily be missed are the appearance of a few small spots of bleeding beneath the skin. These fade within a few days, but other spots continue to appear.
‘A little later larger patches of blood beneath the skin appear and may appear round the hair roots. At the same time the skin becomes rough and like a nutmeg grater, and heaps up around the hair follicles especially on the buttocks, thighs and calves of the legs. Many of these little lumps contain broken or coiled up hairs.
‘In fact, this heaped up hair follicle in the centre of a red inflammed circle is considered the classic sign of early scurvy.
‘A little later still the gums become swollen and bleed easily. This is most noticeable where the teeth are neglected, as in some elderly people, but does not occur when the teeth have been extracted.
‘Haemorrhages may now appear in the conjuctiva of the eyes — red eye.
‘Most characteristic is a dryness of the mouth, eye and scalp with loss of hair and a dry itchy skin. The teeth become loose in their sockets and fillings fall out. Near the third month of deficiency profound fatigue, weakness and lethargy develop; the legs ache and soon develop painful swollen joints and swelling of feet and ankles.
‘The urine often becomes scanty and high coloured.
‘Psychological changes are common, marked by undue concern about the health, depression and hysteria. Haemorrhages and bruising appear in many places, even into the nerve sheaths causing neuritic pains in legs and arms.
‘In babies, scurvy is most apt to occur a short time after they are weaned from the breast, unless Vitamin C is given them in supplements or in plenty of orange juice or other fresh fruit juices. The few teaspoons of orange juice, specially when fruit is out of season, do not supply enough Vitamin C to keep the baby in good health. Even breast fed babies have developed scurvy when the mother’s diet is deficient in Vitamin C
This deficiency has occurred among Australian aboriginal babies living in reserves or on fringe of civilisation — not in their native state.
In infants the signs of scurvy are different from those of adults. The onset is usually insidious. ‘Failure to thrive’ may be the only clue at first. The baby is irritable, the limbs are tender to touch and he will not move them — almost as if paralysed. In fact, the baby fears to be touched or handled and cries instead of being soothed, when he is picked up.
If he is teething there is often bleeding of the gums. Tiny blood spots may first appear in the skin, then there is bleeding in many areas — into the joints, next to bones, blood-stained urine and motions and even behind the eyes.
These babies are most susceptible to infections of all kinds. Indeed, the first signs of Vitamin C deficiency in children may be ear infection, tonsillitis, bronchitis, constant colds and ‘running nose’. The later is constantly seen in malnourished native children of all races, and common among our own aboriginal babies and children.
Anaemia occurs in adults, babies and children.
An example of how important Vitamin C is in controlling these infections occurred in one of our larger Queensland country towns where a number of aboriginal families lived — some in good houses, some in humpies on the reserve. Practically all the babies and young children suffered some infection of the nose, throat or ears.
The white women of the town organized a van manned by volunteers and a Health Department Sister to visit these families each day and check the health of the children, talk to the mothers and distribute vitamin and iron pills and the milk enriched biscuits which the government was distributing to children in lieu of milk. 1 They found that 250 mg and 500 mg orange flavored
Vitamin C tablets were liked by the children and that many of the infections cleared up on this regime. There were not nearly so many runny noses, coughs and school sores, and their general health improved.
However, ‘Not necessary and too expensive’, declared the Government Medical officer, who did not believe in the value of Vitamin C. So he cut down the dose to one 50 milligram tablet a day (the Recommended Daily Allowance) — as has recently been done to the dose of ascorbic acid as a pensioners’ pharmaceutical benefit. The sister in < charge of the van told me that since cutting down the
Vitamin C all the old infections were back again in full force. I could see this for myself — every child over 6 months had a runny nose and a cough.
Dr Archie Kalokerinos — working among aboriginal children in the town of Collarenabri in Western New South Wales — reduced the high death rate among aboriginal ‘ babies and children from almost ‘Every Second Child’ to
practically zero by the use of Vitamin C, not only to prevent j scurvy but to cure the pneumonia and diarrhoea and sudden deaths from which so many had succumbed.
His Book Every Second Child describes the life-saving properties of ascorbic acid — and its salt sodium ascorbate by mouth and by injection.
Dr Kalokerinos’ results repeat and confirm the results of Dr Frederick Klenner of Reidsville, North Carolina, in his use of massive doses of Vitamin C in curing many infections and poisonings and promoting healing of injuries and burns.
The history of Vitamin C is by no means complete, as research in laboratories and in fields of general practice still goes on. It is found to play an ever greater and more significant role in human metabolism, and in the prevention and cure of human disabilities and disease.
More research, begun in the 1930s and 1940s, is urgently needed to establish its value in such conditions as poisoning, drug addiction and shock, and such intractable diseases as arthritis, encephalitis and cancer on what is effective therapeutic dosage.
Present clinical experience has so far shown that ascorbic acid is not merely a vitamin to be used in minute doses to prevent scurvy but, used as a so called megavitamin — in gram rather than milligram doses, it has tremendous potential in saving human life and promoting human health and well being.
The history of Vitamin C is still in the making.
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Posted on Sep 28, 2010 under General health |
Vitamin C — ascorbic acid — is a wonderful substance, as it takes part in so many vital processes in the body and is essential to health and life itself. In fact, ascorbic acid might well be called a ‘food’, not merely a vitamin.
A complete deficiency — less than 10 milligrams a day — results in scurvy, a disease that has plagued mankind ever since history has been recorded.
A condition that was almost certainly scurvy was described in an ancient Egyptian papyrus 1550 B.C. and ancient Romans and Greeks evidently suffered from scurvy, especially on military campaigns.
Indeed, a lack of Vitamin C has shaped the very course of history, limiting military conquests and exploration .by land and sea.
Explorers in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries gave vivid accounts of scurvy and many and varied cures were devised. Some were effective, others useless. The successful remedies seem to have been forgotten from one generation of sufferers to the next, as their findings were not recorded, and the same methods with trial and error were repeated again and again — just as we do nowadays with other vitamins. The catch cry of ‘not proven’ was as limiting then as it is today.
In fact, sea captains, merchant or navy, whether exploring for new lands or breaking into unchartered seas, expected to lose a proportion of their men from scurvy every voyage; and peasant folk in the northern hemisphere were inured to some of their children and old folk succumbing to the disease by the end of winter, before the spring brought fresh foods again to their larder.
In 1536, The French Naval Commander, Jacques Car-tier, exploring in Newfoundland, was gravely concerned because most of his crew were ill with scurvy. Twenty-five of them died. The survivors, however, were promptly cured by a remedy used by the Indians — the juice and sap from the leaves of the Amedia tree — probably the American spruce. Cartier was so delighted with the result that he wrote in his diary —
‘It wrought so well, that if all the physicians of Montpelier and Louraine had been there, with all the drugs of Alexandria, they would not have done as much in one year as that tree did in 6 days; for it did so prevail, that for as many as used it, by the Grace of God, recovered their health’.
A beer, or decoction, of the American black spruce was well known among Greenlanders and the never failing remedy of Greenland scurvy grass was used by sailors on the Arctic Seas.
If the English Admiral, Sir Richard Hawkins, had known about spruce beer some 50 years later, he would not have lost 10,000 seamen from scurvy in the British Navy. He it was who first advocated oranges and lemons as a cure and so saved the Navy — 150 years before Dr James Lind made his famous discovery.
When Sir Richard died his ideas died with him. No one took them seriously, and scurvy returned with equal menace to the British Navy and merchant ships.
Hundreds of remedies were used with more or less — rather less — success for the prevention and cure of scurvy. They are listed in the 1771 edition of the British Encyclopaedia. Although Lind’s treatise on scurvy is recognised and oranges and lemons were listed, the article claims that cyder was next best, also ‘plenty of fresh greens and vegetables — particularly salads arid garden cresses’.
It gives detailed directions for preservatising and reducing orange juice to a syrup ‘and the virtues of this extract, thus made, will serve one man at sea for several years’. The Encyclopaedia goes on to advise bottled gooseberries, small onions pickled in vinegar, cabbage, French beans and other vegetables preserved in layers of salt in clean stone jars, also the ‘never failing remedy
Greenland scurvy grass’.
Patients with scurvy were treated with raisins and currants or pickled cabbage, small onions boiled — well acidulated with orange and lemon juice — and with salads more particularly ‘dandelion, sorrel, endive, lettuce, sumitary and purslave to which may be added scurvy grass, cresses and the like’.
In winter they used not only spruce beer but an antiscorbutic ale made of an infusion of heads of red cabbage cut small, horse radish and mustard seed and other spices.
There was a great deal of valuable information about remedies for prevention and cure of scurvy, yet in 1740 Admiral George Anson set off on a voyage round the world with six ships and 1955 men without availing himself of any of it. Only the flagship Centurion returned. One thousand and fifty-one seamen died, chiefly from scurvy.
This disaster inspired Dr James Lind, Surgeon of the British Fleet (or perhaps he was ordered) to seek a definite cure for scurvy. Lind had all the current ‘remedies’, and he compared their value, as he used some of the most popular in his classical experiment on the naval ship Salisbury. He had compared the diets of sailors on various ships and sea routes and discovered that those which visited Southern ports and took cargoes of citrus fruits and added lots of oranges or lemons to their monotonous diet survived best.
‘Lind’s experiment was a landmark in the search for Vitamins, and to this day it remains a model for scientific investigation’, writes Herbert Bailey in his book The Vitamin Pioneers — (well worth reading).
‘It was carefully planned. The conditions were controlled. There were comparable groups, quantative data and carefully recorded findings’.
Let Dr Lind tell of it in his own words from his treatise on scurvy.
‘On 20th May, 1747, I took twelve patients in the scurvy …. Their cases were as similar as I could have them …. They lay together in one place, and had one diet common to all…. Two of these were ordered each a quart of cider a day. Two others took twenty-five drops of elixir vitriol three times a day .Two others took two spoonfuls of vinegar three times a day upon an empty stomach. Two of the worst patients …. were put on a course of sea water …. Two others had each two oranges and one lemon given them every day …. The two remaining patients took the bigness of a nutmeg three times a day of an electary in the amount as recommended by a hospital surgeon …. The consequence was that the most sudden and visible good effects were perceived from the use of the oranges and lemons; of those who had taken them being at the end of the six days fit for duty.’
Instead of proving his point, the results of Lind’s experiments were ignored by the Navy and ridiculed by his colleagues. They labelled him a ‘crank’!
It was not until 1794 — year of Lind’s death — that his work received any official recognition and his proposal to supply a British Squadron with an adequate amount of lemon juice for an extended voyage of 23 weeks was accepted and tried — with dramatic results. Only one member of the crew developed scurvy.
There was one man, however, on whom Lind’s studies and recommendations did have a prompt and profound effect — his close friend Captain (then Lieutenant) James Cook. Cook not only followed Dr Lind’s advice in providing lemons for his crew but took on fresh fruits, greens and vegetables whenever his ships made a land-fall, and insisted on his officers setting an example to the men by eating them themselves. He also insisted on good hygiene and cleanliness on his ships. The result was that not one seaman died of scurvy on his long 3 year voyages (1768-1771 and 1772 to 1775). It was for this achievement he was honoured by the award of Copley Medal, rather than for his discovery of Australia.
Finally, in 1795, lemon juice was actually added to the diet of British Sailors — hence the nickname ‘limey’ — although it was not until 1884 — eighteen years later — that the order was made official. In the forty-eight years that elapsed between Lind’s proof of the lifesaving properties of oranges and lemons and the actual adoption of these anti-scurvy measures thousands of sailors must have died unnecessarily from scurvy.
Lind, in his bitterness, wrote ‘There are certain persons who just will not let themselves be convinced that a terrible disease can be cured easily, yes that it can be even prevented’.
The same attitude of mind prevailed for many years as regards Vitamin C and still persists today in orthodox medical circles as other vitamins of proven value have been discovered.
Only in the last 50 years has scurvy become an uncommon disease. Until the turn of the century scurvy was rampant among babies and children in the cities of England, Europe and America. At that time everyone was so keen on hygiene, purity and prevention of germs that mothers were learning to boil and sterilise everything — even the baby’s milk, thus destroying the little Vitamin C it contained.
Bottle feeding was also coming into vogue in place of breast feeding — which usually supplies ample Vitamin C. With boiled and pastuerised milk, babies did not succumb so frequently to gastroenteritis — but they did get scurvy. Now mothers are thoroughly aware that every artificially fed baby needs Vitamin C in the form of orange juice or rose hip syrup or ascorbic acid drops every day.
Scurvy is rarely seen nowadays in Australia or New Zealand, but a relative Vitamin C deficiency is prevalent. Actual scurvy is sometimes found among fringe-dwelling or even city-dwelling aboriginal babies — even in one or two breast fed babies — owing to a diet of dried milk or condensed milk with no supplement, or a diet of white bread, jam and tea in the mothers, unfortified by any Vitamin C supplement.
Cases of scurvy have also been discovered among newly arrived migrant children whose parents have not yet adapted to our Australian diet, and can easily feed their children and themselves on restaurant foods, supermarket foods, snacks, soft drinks, lollies, ‘take-away’ foods and what have come to be known as ‘junk’ foods, but no fresh fruits or salads. They do not realise that there is practically no Vitamin C left in these attractive ‘convenience’ foods.
Although actual cases of scurvy are seldom seen, there is a great deal of relative deficiency of Vitamin C among Australian people particularly among pensioners and adolescents living away from home.
This is not always realised even yet, but way back in 1939 the U.S. Department of Agriculture printed in its Food and Life Yearbook :—
‘In fact, even when there is not a single outward symptom of trouble, a person may be in a state of Vitamin C deficiency more dangerous than scurvy itself.
‘When such a condition is not detected, and continues uncorrected, the teeth and bones will be damaged; and, what may be even more serious, the blood stream is weakened to a point where it can no longer resist or fight infections not so easily cured as scurvy. It is true that without adequate Vitamin C myriads of body processes would deteriorate or even come to a fatal halt’.
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