Scurvy weight loss

Chojkier, M., Spanheimer, R., and Peterkofsky, B., 1984, Specifically decreased collagen biosynthesis in scurvy dissociated from an effect on proline hydroxylation and correlated with body weight loss In vitro studies in guinea pig calvarial bones, J. Clin. Invest. 72 826-835. 

A priori, the best means of determining vitamin C requirement would seem to be determination of the total body pool and its fractional rate of loss or catabolism. An appropriate intake would then be that to replace losses and maintain the body pool. Clinical signs of scurvy are seen when the total body pool of ascorbate is below 1.7 mmol (300 mg). The pool increases with intake, reaching a maximum of about 8.5 mmol (1,500 mg) in adults -114 /rmol (20 mg) per kg of body weight. The fractional turnover rate of ascorbate is 3% to 4% daily, suggesting a need for 45 to 60 mg per day for replacement. The basis for the 1989 U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of 60 mg (National Research Council, 1989) was the observed mean fractional turnover rate of 3.2% of a body pool of 20 mg per kg of body weight per day, with allowances for incomplete absorption of dietary ascorbate and individual variation. 

Ascorbic acid. Vitamin C, is a water-soluble vitamin of great im-portance. A deficiency of vitamin C in the diet leads to scurvy, a disease characterized by loss of weight, general weakness, hemorrhagic condition of the gums and skin, loosening of the teeth, and other symp-toms. Sound tooth development seems to depend upon a satisfactory supply of this vitamin, and a deficiency is thought to cause a tendency to incidence of a number of diseases. 

Although historically potatoes were introduced into the Western World comparatively recently, the nutritional importance of the potato has frequently been underestimated. Many of us think of potatoes as the food which has to be cut down on in a diet to lose weight because of their high carbohydrate content. Carpenter and other authors have pointed out the importance of this humble vegetable in the prevention and cure of scurvy. Prisons in the nineteenth century were, next to hospitals, places to keep away from if you wished to remain healthy. At that time it was part of the philo.sophy of the treatment of criminal behaviour (and perhaps still is) that the wrongdoer should suffer, not just by loss of liberty, but by the deprivation of... 

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