Informative Speech On Scurvy

Proper nutrition is very important. If you don’t get enough of a specific nutrient, you could wind up in a really bad situation. One of the specific nutrients I’m talking about is Vitamin C. Without it, you might find yourself diagnosed with scurvy. A disease caused by a Vitamin C deficiency. Early symptoms include weakness, feeling tired, and sore arms and legs. Without treatment, symptoms worsen. Decreased red blood cells, gum disease, changes to hair, and profuse bleeding can occur. As scurvy worsens there can be poor wound healing, personality changes, and finally death from infection or bleeding.

It takes at least a month of little to no vitamin C before symptoms occur. In modern times, it occurs mostly in people with mental disorders, unusual eating habits, alcoholism, and old people who live alone. Other risk factors include intestinal malabsorption (when something

Improvement often begins in a few days with complete recovery in a few weeks. Sources of vitamin C in the diet include citrus fruit and a number of raw vegetables such as tomatoes and potatoes. Cooking often decreases vitamin C in foods.

Scurvy is currently rare. It occurs more often in the developing world in association with malnutrition. Rates among refugees are reported at 5% to 45%. Scurvy was described as early as the time of ancient Egypt. It was a limiting factor in long distance sea travel, often killing large numbers of people. A Scottish surgeon in the Royal Navy, James Lind, was the first to prove it could be treated with citrus fruit in a 1753 publication. His experiments represented the first controlled trial. It took another 40 years before the British Navy began giving out lemon juice routinely.

In the 13th century, the Crusaders frequently suffered from scurvy. In the 1497 expedition of Vasco de Gama, the curative effects of citrus fruit were already known and confirmed by Pedro Álvares Cabral and his crew in