Signs & Symptoms of Vitamin C Deficiency

Vitamin C is perhaps one of the most well-known and widely used vitamins in the world today. Nearly everything is vitamin C fortified and a glass of fortified orange juice, for instance, can contain over 100% of the recommended daily allowance. However, with those who eat an unbalanced diet, it is still quite possible to suffer from a deficiency.

Scurvy

• Scurvy is the official name for vitamin C deficiency. Since vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, it is not stored in the body. If there is not a constant supply of vitamin C coming into the body, deficiency develops and scurvy sets in.

  Most animals are not at risk for scurvy. That's because their bodies synthesize vitamin C on their own. Humans--along with primates and guinea pigs--are only able to get their daily dose of vitamin C from the food they eat.

  Scurvy comes by several different names: when it occurs in infants, it is called Barlow's disease. It can also be referred to as Moeller's disease or as Cheadle's disease.

History

• Scurvy is a disease that is well documented in history. It has been the bane of sailors for over two thousand years, and was first written about by Hippocrates, the Greek doctor of the 300s B.C. By the early 1700's, a daily dose of citrus fruit was required to keep the sailors of the British Navy healthy.

  Doctors and naval surgeons had discovered the cure for this scurvy nearly three hundred years before vitamin C had been isolated and named. We now know that it was the lack of fresh vegetable food and the lack of vitamin C that brought about this condition.

Symptoms

• The symptoms of vitamin C deficiency, or scurvy, are particularly painful and debilitating. The skin swells and bruises readily, and the mucus membranes become raw and bleeding. The gums are spongy, which leads to tooth loss. Untreated scurvy is nearly always fatal.

Cure

• The cure for vitamin C deficiency is very simple and fairly cheap. Simply provide an adequate amount of vitamin C--in the diet or with supplements--and the condition will clear up in an amazingly short period of time. Sailors would find that, after being afflicted with scurvy for weeks at sea, eating fresh fruits and vegetables for five days in port would cure them quite effectively.

RDA for vitamin C

• As you can see, it is important to get the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C. Young children need from 15 to 25 mg per day. Teens require 65 to 75 mg. Adult males need 90 mg, and adult females need 75 mg. Smokers, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, have a higher RDA than others.