The Prevention of Scurvy, Beri-beri and Xerophthalmia
Sir Arthur Newsholme in The Story of Modern Preventive Medicine, 2015
This chapter discusses scurvy, beri-beri, pellagra and keratomalacia (Xerophthalmia). Barlow's disease or scurvy in children, like adult scurvy is characterised by pallor, and weakness and tenderness of limbs. This disease was described by Barlow in 1889; and he gave explicit directions as to its treatment by orange juice, potato, raw milk, and raw meat juice. Beri-beri is characterised by weakness and loss of appetite followed by dropsy and by tingling and weakness of the legs, and more or less complete anaesthesia. The disease is endemic in rice-growing communities in the East, where the diet is almost exclusively confined to this single cereal. Keratomalacia is a rare disease, important in the history of dietetic preventive medicine. Pellagra is due to dietetic deficiency, though there is still doubt as to its exact genesis. It has long been regarded as a food intoxication due to the toxic products of spoiled maize.
Vitamin B-1 (Thiamin)
Howerde E. Sauberlich in Laboratory Tests for the Assessment of Nutritional Status, 2018
Infantile beriberi occurs usually in an acute form in breast-fed infants of mothers who reveal signs of a Vitamin B-1 (thiamine) deficiency. Thiamin deficiency in alcoholics is generally due to a decreased intake of the vitamin, but may be aggravated by malabsorption, impaired utilization, or by increased metabolism and excretion. Urinary excretion of thiamin provides an indication of recent dietary intake of the vitamin but only a limited reflection of body stores of thiamin. Tissue stores of thiamin will be depleted with intakes of the vitamin below the critical point and, if continued, will result in symptoms of a deficiency. Measurement of erythrocyte thiamin pyrophosphate concentrations by high performance liquid chromatography has been useful for the evaluation of thiamin status. In the human, thiamin pyrophosphate catalyzes two general types of reactions: the formation of ketoses as catalyzed by transketolase and the oxidative decarboxylation of a-keto acids catalyzed by dehydrogenase complexes.
Nutrition and disease
Christopher Aldous, Akihito Suzuki in Reforming Public Health in Occupied Japan, 1945–52, 2011
Previous chapters have illuminated American assumptions and prejudices about the shortcomings of disease control in Japan and the primitive nature of its sanitary infrastructure. Although some of these judgements may have been at least partly justified, more often than not they drew on rather crude comparisons with practices in the US rather than reflecting a proper understanding of the particular historical and cultural influences that had shaped the Japanese experience. A similar Occupation mindset was evident in the case of Japanese nutrition. Its perceived shortcomings were largely a reflection of how it differed from dietary practice in the United States. Sams, for example, observed that long ago ‘the Japanese had made a fundamental decision … to rely on grain crops as the principle source of food, rather than a combination of grain and domestic livestock’, as was the norm in the US. Further, he argued, this adoption of ‘faulty nutritional patterns’ had ‘contributed to the exceptionally high beriberi and tuberculosis incidence in pre-war Japan’ and (rather implausibly) ‘the steady decrease in the height and stamina of the people’. 1
Shoshin Beriberi: A Fulminant Beriberi Heart Disease
Published in Acta Clinica Belgica, 1988
Q. Meulders, P.F. Laterrc, M. Sergant, L. Corbeel
Summary Shoshin beriberi is the fulminant form of beriberi heart disease, due to acute thiamine deficiency. In this report, we describe the case of a 34-ycar-old malnourished alcoholic man, who was studied in the acute phase of shoshin beriberi, with high-output cardiac failure, loss of Peripheral vascular resistance and severe Metabolic acidosis. Pathogenesis and possible mechanisms of this very rare complication of chronicalcoholism are reviewed.
Beriberi in Cambodia
Published in Paediatrics and International Child Health, 2015
Beriberi had plagued humans for centuries. It was responsible for over 50% of infant deaths in the Philippines in the early 1900s. But since the discovery of its cause and treatment it has become a rarity, or has it?
Thiamine deficiency in tachypnoeic Cambodian infants
Published in Paediatrics and International Child Health, 2015
Elizabeth M. Keating, Phot Nget, Sreng Kea, Suy Kuong, Leng Daly, Seng Phearom, Felicity Enders, Lynn A. Cheryk, Mark Topazian, Philip R. Fischer, Varun Kumar
Background:Beriberi is endemic in South-east Asia. Diagnosis is based on clinical findings, but correlation of clinical features with blood thiamine concentrations is uncertain. Objectives:To investigate in tachypnoeic Cambodian infants the correlation between whole blood thiamine diphosphate (TDP) concentrations, clinical findings and blood TDP levels after therapy. Methods:Infants hospitalised with tachypnoea were enrolled from October 2011 to January 2012. Initial clinical features, diagnostic test results and final diagnoses were recorded. Blood for TDP determination was collected prior to treatment and at discharge. Matched infants from the general outpatient clinic with minor complaints were enrolled as controls. Thiamine was administered at the discretion of the treating paediatrician. Results:Of the 47 tachypnoeic and 47 control infants, median initial blood TDP concentrations were 83 and 93 nmol/L, respectively (P = 0·69), and were below the estimated limit of normal (
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