Preface
Mysterious Diseases Caused by Lack of Vitamins
Great Findings Arise from Raising Chickens
Vitamin C and B were Discovered
Vitamin B2--- the Second Water Soluble B Nutrient
Corn Pellagra and Niacin a Member of Vitamin B Complex
Search for Treatment of Pernicious Anemia
Sunshine Vitamin D and Rickets
Night Blindness and Vitamin A
Bringing Forth Offspring Vitamin E
Blood Clotting and Vitamin K
Take Care of Your Vitamin Intake
In ancient times, people ate a variety of foods so there were few vitamin deficiency induced illnesses, though the mysterious condition had plagued many since the time of Hippocrates in 400 B.C.. As society developed after the 14th century, so did disease due to vitamin deficiencies. People with specialized occupations, such as seamen and explorers, were often faced to subsist on one food for a long period of time. They began to developed mysterious diseases and some even died.
In 1498, Portugal explorer Vasco de Gama successfully led ships to Africa by way of Cape of Good Hope. Of 160 sailors, 100 suffered from a mysterious condition, body weakness, swollen and bleeding gums(gingivitis), fever, and eventually died. This new disease was called scurvy or scorbutus.
In Asia, the Japanese navy was bothered with another strange malady they named beriberi or Kakke. In the beginning, a patient afflicted with beriberi felt numbness and heaviness of the feet followed by edema, difficulty walking and paralysis. In the later stage, the victim would develop chest distention and shortness of breath, which would often be fatal. Those that survived would be so weak they could not work. Many physicians thought that there must a relationship between scurvy, beriberi, and nutrition, but they could not confirm this.
In 1747, British doctor James Lind singled out a cure for scurvy. Hypothesizing that acidic material relieved symptoms of the illness; Lind tried six different substances on six groups of scurvy-stricken men. He gave them all the standard shipboard diet, but he gave a different test substance to one pair of men in each of the six groups. One pair received a solution of sulfuric acid each day; another, cider; and a third, seawater. The fourth pair received vinegar, and the fifth took a daily combination of garlic, mustard seed, balsam of Peru, and gum myrrh. The sixth pair in the experiment received two oranges and a lemon each day---luck them. Lind found that the men who ate citrus fruit improved rapidly; one returned to duty after only six days. The sailors who drank the cider showed slight improvement after two weeks, but none of the others improved. No one paid attention to his findings.
More than 100 years later, a medical officer in the Japanese navy, named K. Takaki, found that although the Japanese navy seemed much cleaner than the western navy, they still suffered from many more cases of beriberi. This led him to believe that beriberi may be caused by a nutritional defect offer than unsanitary contamination. He conducted an experiment on two ships sailing to North America at the same time. On one ship, he had traditional Japanese meals of rice served aboard the second ship; the meals included a variety of fish, meats, vegetables and mild. After a nine-month trip, on the ship serving classic Japanese food, 169 of 276 seamen developed beriberi and 25 of those died. On the other ship, there were only 10 cases of beriberi. After investigation, it was found those 10 sailors did not eat the western food but only ate rice. Dr. Takaki’s experiment clearly showed the relationship between beriberi and food, but he mistakenly came to the conclusion that beriberi was caused by unclean rice.
In the 19th century, the East Indian Islands of Java and Sumatra were controlled by the Dutch and used as penal colonies. Beriberi was common among the criminals. The Dutch government dispatched a group of physicians to the islands in hopes of discovering why beriberi was pervasive, but still did not uncover the answer.