Explain the importance and the diseases caused due to the lack of following minerals in our
body a. Potassium b. iron c. calcium
Answers
Companies pushing products with added vitamins and minerals can fool people into thinking that they’re eating a “healthy” food when they’re not—but it’s not like those vitamins and minerals are there for no reason. For much of human history, diseases of nutrient deficiency were the norm, and in some parts of the world, they still persist. Even into the 20th century, conditions caused by a lack of certain vitamins or minerals were endemic to North America and Europe. Artificially added nutrients may not make a food “healthy,” but they do stave off several debilitating, and sometimes fatal, diseases of malnutrition. Here are a few of those maladies.
1. Scurvy
The disease of pirates: the grey-death. Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C, whose chemical name, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin term for scurvy, scorbutus. Even though the disease was known since ancient times (described by Hippocrates around 400 BCE), it was not a scourge to those who were largely land-bound. Even though its causes were unknown, many cultures realized that eating certain herbs could reverse the symptoms, and as long as there was access to fresh food, it was generally kept under control.
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Scurvy didn’t become a significant problem until the Age of Discovery (beginning in the 15th century), when people at sea were not able to access that much-needed fresh food for months at a time. Preserved meats and carbohydrates contained no vitamin C, and unlike most animals, the human body is not able to create vitamin C on its own.
The early symptoms of scurvy include spongy gums, pain in the joints, and blood spots appearing under the skin. As the disease progressed, the teeth would become loose, extreme halitosis (bad breath) would develop, the afflicted would become too weak to walk or work, be in too much pain to eat, and would die “mid-sentence,” often from a burst blood vessel. Many of the early explorers lost great numbers of men to scurvy: Vasco de Gama lost 116 out of 170 men in 1499, and in 1520, Magellan lost 208 out of 230. A few deaths were attributable to other causes, but the vast majority were due to scurvy.
Despite not being able to pinpoint the exact cause of scurvy, in the 18th century, naval physician James Lind was able to prove, in what’s considered to be the first controlled scientific experiment, that scurvy could be prevented (and cured) by incorporating citrus fruits such as limes and oranges into the diet of sailors. Although his findings weren’t widely accepted at first, the British Navy eventually began issuing standard rations of lemon juice, and later, limes, to their sailors—which gave rise to the term “limey” in reference to the British.
These days, scurvy is an extremely rare condition, almost exclusively caused by someone eating a completely unvaried diet. In most cases, high levels of oral supplementation of vitamin C are enough to reverse the condition in a matter of weeks, and death by scurvy is almost unheard of.
The disease of pirates: the grey-death. Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C, whose chemical name, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin term for scurvy, scorbutus. Even though the disease was known since ancient times (described by Hippocrates around 400 BCE), it was not a scourge to those who were largely land-bound. Even though its causes were unknown, many cultures realized that eating certain herbs could reverse the symptoms, and as long as there was access to fresh food, it was generally kept under control.
Scurvy didn’t become a significant problem until the Age of Discovery (beginning in the 15th century), when people at sea were not able to access that much-needed fresh food for months at a time. Preserved meats and carbohydrates contained no vitamin C, and unlike most animals, the human body is not able to create vitamin C on its own.
The early symptoms of scurvy include spongy gums, pain in the joints, and blood spots appearing under the skin. As the disease progressed, the teeth would become loose, extreme halitosis (bad breath) would develop, the afflicted would become too weak to walkor work, be in too much pain to eat, and would die “mid-sentence,” often from a burst blood vessel. Many of the early explorers lost greatnumbers of men to scurvy: Vasco de Gama lost 116 out of 170 men in 1499, and in 1520, Magellan lost 208 out of 230. A few deaths were attributable to other causes, but the vast majority were due to scurvy.
Despite not being able to pinpoint the exact cause of scurvy, in the 18th century, naval physician James Lind was able to prove, in what’s considered to be the first controlled scientific experiment, that scurvy could be prevented (and cured) by incorporating citrus fruits such as limes and oranges into the diet of sailors. Although his findings weren’t widely accepted at first, the British Navy eventually began issuing standard rations of lemon juice, and later, limes, to their sailors—which gave rise to the term “limey” in reference to the British.
These days, scurvy is an extremely rare condition, almost exclusively caused by someone eating a completely unvaried diet. In most cases, high levels of oral supplementation of vitamin C are enough to reverse the condition in a matter of weeks, and death by scurvy is almost unheard of.
2. Rickets
This condition is brought on by a lack of vitamin D, which causes the body to be unable to absorb or deposit calcium. Less commonly, it can also be caused by a lack of calcium or phosphorus, but vitamin D deficiency is by far the most common cause. Unlike vitamin C, the human body is able to produce vitamin D, but only if it has the metabolic precursors available to it.
When the skin is exposed to ultraviolet light (such as from the sun), cholesterol in the skin reacts and forms cholecalciferol, which is then processed in the liver and kidneys to create the active form of vitamin D. Even with a nominally healthy diet, without enough sun exposure, the body can’t produce the vitamin D precursors on its own. This is actually re-emerging as a health concern among some increasingly-indoor groups of people, and is one of the few hypovitaminosis (lack of vitamin) conditions not considered to be a “disease of the past.” Luckily, when the deficiency is recognized, cholecalciferol can be directly taken as a vitamin supplement or acquired from eating organ meats and oils, such as cod liver oil, allowing the body to resume producing vitamin D.
Rickets is a condition of children, as the deficiency’s most severe effects are on developing bones; in adults, “bone-softening,” or osteomalacia, can be caused by the same vitamin deficiency. But in adults, it both takes significantly longer to develop and tends to cause tip-off signs that something is wrong before bone warping sets in, such as extreme pain in the bones, and unexplained muscle weakness. In children, especially those that don’t or can’t receive regular check-ups, deformity and debilitation by the deficiency is often only noticed after significant damage has been done to their developing skeletons.
The most telling symptoms of rickets are at the epiphyses (growth plates) of bones: The body is unable to lengthen bones by depositing calcium, and ends up with bones that flare outward in a “cupping” appearance. This leads to costochondral swelling, or what’s known as the “rachitic rosary” along the ribcage of the child, as well as widened wrists and “thick” joints. Before widened wrists or rachitic rosary appears, the softening of the skull bones can lead to “Caput Quadratum”—a square-headed appearance, and often the first sign of skeletal growth problems. If left untreated, rickets also can cause an extremely curved back, stunted growth, and frequent fractures—all of which can lead to permanent and debilitating deformity.