Do you get injured a lot? Maybe you have ongoing joint aches or injuries that aren't healing. Maybe you even have some issues with your gums. My name's Dr. Terranella, and in this video we're going to look at scurvy, its causes and treatment, and how some of these symptoms may be related to what's known as subclinical scurvy. We're going to look at some genetics, some research studies, and put it all together to help you see if this might be a problem going on with you.
Research Links:
Endothelium: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Genetics: www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Case www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
In this video, we'll look at the causes and treatment of scurvy. We'll also discuss how likely it is to manifest in a general population and why it might be present in that population when it is there.
Scurvy is a disease caused by a severe vitamin C deficiency. It is characterized by symptoms such as bleeding gums, joint pain and aches, and poor wound healing. These symptoms are all related to collagen breakdown and impaired collagen synthesis.
Now, these are all fairly common symptoms that many of us will experience as we get older. However, just because we have these symptoms doesn't necessarily mean that we have scurvy or subclinical scurvy. Most of the time, when we think of scurvy, we think of the extreme versions. However, you don't have to have extreme, major scurvy to have a vitamin C deficiency that may be affecting your gums or tissue repair. In general, I'm suggesting here that subclinical scurvy may be more common than we might think.
Actual scurvy and vitamin C deficiency is a relatively rare thing in the United States, but it can occur in certain populations. And as we'll see, one does not have to have frank scurvy or vitamin C deficiency in order to have problems from not enough vitamin C.
According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), conducted between 2003 and 2004, about 7% of adults over the age of 20 had vitamin C deficiency, as defined by blood plasma concentration below 11.4 micromoles per liter. A blood plasma concentration is simply a blood test where you measure the amount of vitamin C in the sample.
In the sample they looked at, the prevalence of vitamin C deficiency was much higher in smokers and individuals of lower income and education levels. These are also the people who are most likely to be eating more poorly and not taking vitamin C supplements. Of course, the more inflammation going on in the body from smoking, poor diet habits, or any lifestyle factor that contributes to inflammation, is going to deplete your vitamin C levels a lot quicker as well.
Another study looked at the effects of subclinical vitamin C deficiency on endothelial dysfunction. The endothelium is the inner lining of your arteries, and there's a whole dynamic interplay of things going on there that allows the arteries to expand when there's more oxygen needed in local tissues outside of that artery. When your endothelium is not doing well and won't be able to expand and provide the oxygen that's needed to those tissues, the study found that even mild vitamin C deficiency can impair endothelial function and contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease.
So these are all just supporting evidence to the fact that the potential for vitamin C deficiency to affect your body on a day-to-day basis may be higher than we generally think. We think vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that we all need, but not many people give it much thought beyond that.
So I think it's important to consider getting your vitamin C levels checked if you have ongoing gum disease, tissue injuries, or specific injuries that are not healing the way you expect them to. Or maybe you get injured more often than your peers. So along these lines, a case report described a case of subclinical scurvy in a woman who presented with chronic fatigue, pain, and skin changes. The vitamin C levels were found to be very low despite a relatively normal diet, and she was diagnosed with subclinical scurvy.
Overall, subclinical scurvy is not really studied much at all compared to clinical scurvy. But there is definitely evidence to suggest that even a mild vitamin C deficiency can have negative impacts on our health. And it's usually something that's going to develop over time. And of course, there are genetic factors that play into this as well, making some people more susceptible to vitamin C deficiency than others.