Scurvy is a disease a person gets if he lacks vitamin C. The symptoms may affect a person’s activities of daily living and can be harmful if unmanaged. The following are the causes, signs and symptoms, and home remedies for scurvy.
Causes
The main cause of scurvy is inadequate vitamin C or ascorbic acid intake. As per Medical News Today, this could be secondary to anorexia, ignorance, famine, restrictive diets, and difficulty ingesting foods orally. According to the publication, sailors in sea voyages long time ago did not bring with them enough vitamin C food sources and it resulted to the condition. It is added that people who are at high risk of having the condition include infants, children who are on poor or special diets, the alcoholics, and the elderly.
Signs and Symptoms
Scurvy presents a number of signs and symptoms. According to NHS UK, these include an exhausted or weak feeling all the time, a general feeling of irritability and misery, pain in the limbs, presence of tiny red-blue spots in the skin, swollen gums that become soft and bleed, severe joint pain, shortness of breath following periods of physical activity, swelling and redness in recently healed wounds, and easily bruised skin. For infants, the early symptoms include irritability, lack of appetite, poor weight gain, diarrhea, and fever of 38 degrees Celsius. The condition later presents symptoms like pain and tenderness in the legs, outward bulging of the eyes, and the appearance of reddish-bluish spots on the skin.
Home Remedies
Scurvy can be managed by adding vitamin C to the diet. Also, the following are some remedies that can be done at home to resolve the condition.
Gooseberries
One remedy for scurvy is gooseberry. According to Home Remedies for You, the fruit helps reduce the scurvy symptoms and restore the person’s biochemical balance. As per the publication, the person turns dry gooseberries to powder form and and mixes the powder with some powdered sugar. Then,. the resulting mixture is consumed two times a day. Also, the person may dissolve the mixture in water and drink the resulting mixture. Gooseberry can also be added to lukewarm milk and consumed prior to bedtime.
As per Natural Home Remedies, amalaki or Indian Gooseberry serves as the best source vitamin C among all foods. According to the publication, it must be eaten regularly to quickly replenish vitamin C levels in the body.
Brussel Sprouts and Broccoli
Most vitamin C sources are fruits, so brussel sprouts and broccoli are two vegetable sources that can help manage the scurvy symptoms. According to Home Cure Net, a hundred gram serving brussel sprouts contain 75 milligrams of vitamin C while a hundred gram serving of broccoli contains 89 grams of the vitamin. With such properties, dding them to various meal recipes for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner will be beneficial to a person with scurvy.
Vitamin C Supplementation
Another remedy for scurvy is vitamin C supplementation. According to Natural Remedies, vitamin C must be consumed daily, since the body cannot synthesize and store it. The vitamin C is available in capsule or tablet form in pharmacies, aside from the vitamin C content found in fruits and vegetables. This way, the body will be able to be free from scurvy, as well as boost the function of the immune system and protect the body from opportunistic microorganisms that cause infection.
Overall, scurvy results from lack of vitamin C and it leads to adverse complications, such as reduced immune function and weakness. Thus, it is essential to seek medical consult and care for proper assessment, planning, intervention, education, and evaluation.
