Sailors scurvy. Medical search. Frequent questions

While citrus fruits were always popular, their importance was boosted exponentially when they were revealed to be both a preventative and a cure for scurvy, which was a plague among long-distance sailors. (neatorama.com)

The U.S. Navy continued to struggle with scurvy into the 19th century even though the Royal Navy cracked the mystery of the disease in the 18th century thanks to surgeon James Lind. (health.mil)
From the 14th to the 19th century, scurvy took the lives of millions annually in Europe and Asia. (brianrwright.com)
To prevent scurvy during the 19th century, British sailors were issued a daily allowance of citrus, such as lemon, and later switched to lime. (fever-tree.com)

Sailors ate them to prevent scurvy. (moleiro.com)

The British Navy gave its sailors limes or lemon juice rations to ward off scurvy - earning them the nickname of "Limeys" among the American sailors who didn't know about or believe in the preventative treatment. (health.mil)
It's also why British sailors were called "Limeys", because they had limes on their trips to keep scurvy away. (bellaonline.com)
It's been 300 years since British sailors discovered the value of limes for staving off scurvy, and the science of nutrition was born. (newscientist.com)
We now know that eating just 75-90mg of Vitamin C each day--the amount found in roughly four limes--generally prevents scurvy. (sprecherbrewery.com)
The British sailor thus acquired the nickname, "Limey" because of their usage of limes. (fever-tree.com)
Scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency) was first discovered in British sailors who were not consuming many foods that contained Vitamin C. From then on they carried Vitamin C-packed limes on their voyages. (healthcastle.com)

Virtually all commercially available baby formulas contain added vitamin C, preventing infantile scurvy. (wikipedia.org)

The primary consequence of vitamin C deficiency is scurvy, a disease in which people experience fatigue, skin rash, open and unhealing sores, bleeding gums, and bruising. (foodrevolution.org)
Vitamin C deficiency leads to scurvy. (medscape.com)
vitamin C deficiency impairs collagen synthesis and results in the typical signs of scurvy. (medscape.com)

That's why sailors took citrus fruits on their trips! (bellaonline.com)
In this article, we argue that the mafia arose as a response to an exogenous shock in the demand for oranges and lemons, following Lind's discovery in the late eighteenth century that citrus fruits cured scurvy. (neatorama.com)

Scurvy was the scourge of sailors for thousands of years. (health.mil)
The use of citrus was initially a closely guarded military secret, as scurvy was a common scourge of various national navies, and the ability to remain at sea for lengthy periods without contracting the disorder was a huge benefit for the military. (fever-tree.com)

If you don't get enough Vitamin C, you come down with scurvy which is eventually fatal. (bellaonline.com)
Recently I came across this fascinating discussion of the mystery that scurvy posed: a painful and ultimately fatal disease for which the cause was unknown. (wkiri.com)
Scurvy is fatal if it is not treated. (healthcastle.com)
Scurvy is a horrible, progressive and ultimately potentially fatal condition caused by a prolonged lack of vitamin C. The primary symptom is haemorrhaging, such as wounds failing to heal properly, the skin may bruise easily, and internal bleeding into muscles and joints can be excruciatingly painful, because of the body's inability to make collagen. (heallondon.org)

He planted vines in a false bid to ward off the sailors' scurvy, and thus South African wine was born. (southafrica.net)

Scurvy is a dietary deficiency caused by a lack of vitamin C. The body does not naturally make vitamin C, so it has to come from foods rich in the vitamin such as citrus or from dietary supplements. (health.mil)
Scurvy is caused by prolonged dietary deficiency of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). (medscape.com)

The Cleveland Clinic says that scurvy begins with irritability, weakness, fatigue, and joint pain. (sprecherbrewery.com)
A few months after a person's dietary intake didn't account for ascorbic acid (vitamin C), sailors would develop bruising, bleeding gums, weakness, and fatigue, eventually developing high fevers and dying. (faircompanies.com)

Medicine wouldn't prove the link between a lack of vitamin C (an essential nutrient involved in the repair of tissue) and the general weakness, poor wound healing, and hemorrhages caused by scurvy, a disease that killed, according to estimates, up to two million sailors between 1500 and 1800. (faircompanies.com)
From 1600 to 1800, it is estimated that fully a million English sailors succumbed to this disease. (brianrwright.com)
Estimates are that Scurvy alone killed probably at least 1 million sailors in 200 years between 1600 to 1800 [2] - in times when the number of sailors making long voyages was a tiny fraction of what it is today. (heallondon.org)

Scurvy is a nasty disease where your gums start to soften, your teeth start to fall out, and other body systems slowly fail until you die. (bellaonline.com)
In the late stages of scurvy, the patient's gums swell and bleed, and may become purple and spongy, causing their teeth to loosen and fall out. (sprecherbrewery.com)

The symptoms of scurvy are dramatic and terrible. (health.mil)
[ 6 ] Upon administration of adequate oral vitamin C, the symptoms of scurvy resolve within 1-12 days. (medscape.com)

Before modern refrigeration, sailors on long voyages relied mostly on salted or nonperishable food and had no regular access to fresh green vegetables or fruits that contain the vitamin. (health.mil)
Scurvy -A common condition of sailors who go too long without eating fruits and vegetables. (aq.com)

Scurvy is one of the accompanying diseases of malnutrition (other such micronutrient deficiencies are beriberi and pellagra) and thus is still widespread in areas of the world depending on external food aid. (wikipedia.org)
And even if a ship did take necessary preventive measures against scurvy, long deployments could exhaust shipboard provisions leading to a host of nutritional diseases like scurvy," Sobocinski wrote. (health.mil)
Scurvy might well be described as having been the AIDS of seafarers for hundreds of years, easily killing more sailors than weather, pirates or other diseases put together. (heallondon.org)

Scurvy is rare compared to other nutritional deficiencies. (wikipedia.org)
On 20 May 1743, Lind compared the effect of a few supposed nutritional remedies against scurvy. (who.int)

A Scottish surgeon in the Royal Navy, James Lind, is generally credited with proving that scurvy can be successfully treated with citrus fruit in 1753. (wikipedia.org)

Scurvy is a disease resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). (wikipedia.org)
Scurvy, a disease caused by lack of vitamin C, sickened sailors who had no access to fresh food supplies, and killed more than 2 million sailors between the 16th and 18th centuries alone. (health.mil)

Nevertheless, it was not until 1795 that health reformers such as Gilbert Blane persuaded the Royal Navy to routinely give lemon juice to its sailors. (wikipedia.org)

An estimated 2 million sailors died of the disease between the 16th and 18th centuries alone, often decimating entire ship crews. (health.mil)
Already in the 18th-Century, aware of the evidence accumulated over three centuries of long transcontinental voyages decimating crews, British explorer James Cook succeeded in preventing scurvy on his ships by ensuring clean and ventilated quarters, but also including in the diet cress, sauerkraut, and orange extract. (faircompanies.com)

In his article on the history of scurvy in the U.S. Navy, naval medical historian André Sobocinski, wrote: "In 1809, Dr. William Paul Crillon Barton, a young Philadelphia-born Navy surgeon, took on the fight against scurvy while aboard USS United States, then under the command of Commodore Stephen Decatur. (health.mil)
Sailors began taking cranberries aboard ships for whaling expeditions and the long journeys to China (cranberries are high in vitamin C and prevented scurvy). (statesymbolsusa.org)

As scurvy worsens, there can be poor wound healing, personality changes, and finally death from infection or bleeding. (wikipedia.org)

During the reign of Elizabeth 1, many British sailors went in search of unknown lands. (slideserve.com)

But fret not, sailor-ye be in luck, 'cause me 'nd me AQW Crew has a lil' lessen for ye in the way o' the Pirate. (aq.com)

The inevitable result of untreated scurvy is a bloody and painful death. (sprecherbrewery.com)

The threat of scurvy obliged sailors to test conjectures and develop real remedies against lethal disease. (faircompanies.com)

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama lost 116 of 170 sailors while reaching India by circumnavigating Africa in 1499, whereas Magellan's expedition circumnavigating the globe in 1520 lost 208 out of a crew of 230 in five ships. (faircompanies.com)
On April 7th, 1541, he sailed from Lisbon with Martim Alfonso de Sousa, governor designate of India, and lived amongst the common sailors, ministering to their religious and temporal needs, especially during an outbreak of scurvy. (wikisource.org)

While sailors sick from scurvy groaned above, the beer below fared just as poorly. (smithsonianmag.com)
Sick sailors could not fight, and that was bad for the empire. (sprecherbrewery.com)
During the Age of Discovery, European sailors would fall sick after long periods at sea, surviving on diets lacking fruit and vegetables. (faircompanies.com)

Salt or Old Salt -The name given to veteran Sailors. (aq.com)

For centuries sailors dreaded the aptly named Doldrums. (oceannavigator.com)

This death was a shockingly common one for the sailors of the world, killing upwards of two million of them during the early modern period, according to this article published in the U.S. Naval Institute's Naval History Magazine. (sprecherbrewery.com)

For example, the Royal Navy knew for decades that drinking citrus juice would eliminate scurvy, saving the lives of thousands-yet no one adopted the behavior. (cbeinternational.org)

From the end of the 15th century English sailors started on a series of daring and dangerous expeditions to claim new land from which they could import things such as cotton, spices*, silk and precious metals. (slideserve.com)

This band of windless, hot, and humid weather near the equator could stall sailing ships for weeks, driving the crew to distraction with the monotony and sometimes even leading to the onset of scurvy as fresh supplies ran out. (oceannavigator.com)
Life was very cramped living on Tudor ships and the sailors lived in these conditions for many months and sometimes even years. (slideserve.com)

Over the ensuing years Barton was the leading figure in the fight against scurvy. (health.mil)

While the the term provokes majestic images of the Golden Age of Sail, scurvy cost countless sailors and seamen their lives. (ubc.ca)

Tudor sailors spent many days out of sight of land and so had to take food with them that would last. (slideserve.com)

Although rare, there are also documented cases of scurvy due to poor dietary choices by people living in industrialized nations. (wikipedia.org)

Scurvy has been documented by Hippocrates (460-380BC), but the really devastating death rates of truly pandemic levels by proportion occurred when European seafarers started making long voyages on a regular basis. (heallondon.org)

People who get little or no Vitamin C for many weeks can develop scurvy. (healthcastle.com)

During the Age of Sail, it was assumed that 50 percent of the sailors would die of scurvy on a major trip. (wikipedia.org)

In modern times, scurvy occurs most commonly in people with mental disorders, unusual eating habits, alcoholism, and older people who live alone. (wikipedia.org)
Most people may think of the prolonged medical blunder of scurvy as being only of historical interest because of improvement in both knowledge and scientific method. (heallondon.org)

Jan van Riebeeck, the Cape's first commander, erroneously believed that wine had a high vitamin C content, and that it would be a perfect remedy for the scurvy-afflicted sailors. (southafrica.net)
Scurvy has been described since ancient times and is best known for its high incidence in sailors. (medscape.com)

He had told the sailors of the great ordeals ahead. (editions-delatour.com)

Similarly, the defeat of scurvy by trial-and-error (then emulation) before the arrival of modern medicine can be seen as a precursor of the potential of regulated, evidence-based dietary supplements capable of improving well-being and, in some cases, helping prevent disease. (faircompanies.com)

This description by MD Mark Anderson gives an idea of what a sailor might have experienced on board a ship on a long voyage at sea if there was no fruit or fresh vegetables to eat, culminating with being buried at sea. (heallondon.org)

Scurvy was described as early as the time of ancient Egypt. (wikipedia.org)
The Sadie Family' T Voetpad 2015 and Rust En Vrede Syrah 2014 made the Wine Spectator's 2017 Top 100 list and it's unlikely that this will be the last time local wines are awarded internationally. (southafrica.net)

Many Tudor sailors caught a disease called scurvy which made their teeth fall out and gave them lots of sores. (slideserve.com)

canto IX stanzas 38-89) Here is evoked, not the flirtation of the sailors and the nymphs, but the teeming mystery of the island. (editions-delatour.com)

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