Scurvy is a disease that likely conjures up images of sickly sailors from hundreds of years ago, but doctors in Canada are being warned to look out for the condition now, as a result of growing food insecurity.

A report published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) details the case study of a 65-year-old woman diagnosed with scurvy at a Toronto hospital last year.

The authors say the case points to the need for physicians to consider the possibility of scurvy, particularly among patients at higher risk for nutrient deficiencies, including people with low socioeconomic status and isolated older adults.

“This isn’t the first case of scurvy that I’ve seen in my career so far,” said Dr. Sally Engelhart, the study’s lead author and an internal medicine specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
    8·
    1 month ago

    Yep, a friend had me over once around lunch time. They offered lunch, we opened the cupboards. I kid you not, 3 full cupboards of KD mac and cheese. Me, coming from parents who drilled into me the importance of a varied diet, was astounded that people lived like this.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      1 month ago

      Same here … when I was a teen one of my friends in high school offered me to go to his house for lunch one day. I didn’t think anything of it and expected a decent meal, even just KD which everyone thought was normal.

      He put a piece of plain white bread on a plate, heated a can of gravy and poured a bit of it over the bread … that was lunch for him … and a can of coke to go with it.

      A generation ago, my family and friends (we’re all indigenous), many of the older people died of cancers related to intestine, gastro, bowel … they were all average weight but many died of these terrible cancers because they all ate a lot of canned and processed foods. Generations now are all overweight and suffering from diabetes and heart disease.