Vitamin D: Vitamin D research is in its infancy, but so far it has shown that vitamin D affects most of the body’s tissues.Current research links vitamin D deficiency with 17 different types of cancer (including breast cancer) and many other illnesses like osteoporosis, heart disease and juvenile diabetes.  Fatigue and joint pain. It also affects the immune system and results in deaths from malaria, diarrhoea and measles. In the rest of the world, displacement due to war, and unfortified food from aid programs, has left survivors with enough calories, but not enough nutrients. 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. 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. loss of appetite. people with untreated celiac disease often are low in these: *iron *calcium *fiber *zinc *magnesium *folate *niacin Vitamin B12 Vitamin B12 (or cobalamin) has similar roles to folate within the body, helping make red blood cells and playing roles in brain health and DNA synthesis. To protect against deficiency, you also need adequate amounts of vitamin D, the nutrient that allows you … diseases caused by deficiency of VITAMINS & MINERALS (Science) 1. Vitamins linked to vitamin deficiency anemia include folate, vitamin B-12 and vitamin C.Vitamin deficiency anemia can occur if you don't eat enough folate, vitamin B-12 or vitamin C. Or vitamin deficiency anemia can occur if your body has trouble absorbing or processing these vitamins.Not all anemias are caused by a vitamin deficiency. constipation, bloating, or abdominal pain. muscle cramping. The discovery of important vitamins and how to produce them has been so significant to human health that many of those who were integral to the discoveries have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine; more than 10 Nobel Prizes have been divided among almost 20 eminent scientists for the discovery or isolation of vitamins A, B1, B12, C, D, E, and K. Over the second half of the 20th century, after the beginning of widespread supplementation to everyday food items, the incidences of the conditions covered here went down dramatically across much of the world. Sometimes bariatric surgery is not the cause of the nutritional deficiencies. Vitamin deficiencies generally present with apathy as the foremost behavioral symptom, but some nutritional deficiencies are reported to cause agitation and violence, usually as a result of psychosis (Table II).Pyridoxine (B 6) deficiency due to homocystinuria may cause psychosis.Folic acid deficiency in homocystinuria and hypomethioninemia may cause a schizophrenia-like syndrome.  Common cold. Unlike vitamin C, the human body is able to produce vitamin D, but only if it has the metabolic precursors available to it. In newly diagnosed or untreated celiac disease, damage to the small intestine can lead to poor absorption of vitamins and minerals. Supplementation of assistance food and local fortification of salt and flour is beginning to help give displaced people (especially displaced children) a new chance at life without these and other nutritional diseases. Some vitamins are very sensitive to heat and light. However, people who eat a variety of foods are unlikely to develop most vitamin deficiencies. The symptoms of a mineral deficiency depend upon which nutrient the body lacks. Iron deficiency can lead to anemia. The area of highest prevalence was Northern Italy, where Francesco Frapoli of Milan called it “pelle agra,” meaning “sour skin.”. In the 18th century, James Lind found that eating citrus fruits reduced the occurrence of scurvy in sailors. A few deaths were attributable to other causes, but the vast majority were due to scurvy. If you do have low levels of vitamin D, sleep disturbances can result. With the increased processing of our food throughout the 20th century, however, some of these minerals have been lost, and have had to be re-added to the average Western diet through supplementation. Even though he didn’t know the cause of the condition, Eijkman proved that white rice was the culprit, and shared the 1929 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery. VITAMIN C DEFICIENCY  Leads to scurvy. The medical names of the different conditions are derived from the vitamin involved: an excess of vitamin A, for example, is called " hypervitaminosis A ". Vitamin … 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. Sources: Green leafy vegetables, fruits, butter, egg yolk, carrots, and fish, Sources: Eggs, milk, and green leafy vegetables, Sources: Citrus fruits like lime, orange, and lemon; tomatoes and sprouts, Sources: Spinach, cabbage, or any other green leafy vegetable. Vitamin deficiency anemia is a lack of healthy red blood cells caused when you have lower than normal amounts of certain vitamins. It is one of the major causes of night blindness in pregnant women. This condition is brought on by a lack of vitamin D, which causes the body to be unable to absorb or deposit calcium. However, humans have not historically had a widespread significant problem acquiring these nutrients, as most plants absorb many minerals from the soil. The early symptoms of scurvy include spongy gums, pain in the joints, and blood spots appearing under the skin. Mineral deficiencies are also associated with diseases, including goiter, rickets and anemia.  Weight loss. Vitamin D deficiency is common among certain groups of people (such as older people) even if they eat a variety of foods. 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. Doctors and nutritionists still agree that the healthiest way to acquire your necessary vitamins and minerals is by eating a balanced diet and spending time outdoors each day, but in the course of modern life, that’s not always possible, and if people are going to eat poorly either way, we may as well keep them from dropping dead of scurvy.  Diabetes mellitus.  Cancer prevention. Vitamin deficiency is the condition of a long-term lack of a vitamin. China, parts of Africa, Indonesia, and North Korea all have endemic pellagra among their lowest classes.  Cataracts. 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. These days, scurvy is an extremely rare condition, almost exclusively caused by someone eating a completely unvaried diet. Fat malabsorption. 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. For example, vitamin C is easily destroyed during cooking. Even people with healthy diets benefit from the supplementation of vitamins and minerals in common foodstuffs, and adding the nutrients costs next to nothing. Vitamins and Minerals – Deficiency Diseases Deficiency of Vitamins Table lists some important vitamins and their sources, functions, deficiency diseases, and symptoms. 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. Of course, the minerals essential to the human body play similarly important roles in maintaining health. Cooking does not destroy them. They can be caused by not taking your supplements, or other reasons. Consuming too little of a vitamin can cause a nutritional disorder. Individuals who undergo regular renal replacement therapy such as hemodialysis risk water-soluble vitamin and mineral deficiencies due to increased losses during the dialysis process, increased needs, and inadequate intake. 40 41. They can also come from a diet low in vitamins and minerals. When caused by not enough vitamin intake it is classified as a primary deficiency, whereas when due to an underlying disorder such as malabsorption it is called a secondary deficiency. Recently, beriberi was also seen in Haitian prisons when the prison system began buying imported polished rice from the United States, and stopped feeding their inmates the local brown rice. Vitamin deficiencies are associated with several deficiency diseases, underscoring the need to ensure sufficient vitamin intake. Vitamin D deficiency is thus more common in this population (Tsiaras and Weinstock, 2011). Beriberi became one of the leading causes of mortality in the region. Vitamin A deficiency is the major cause of severe diseases, infections and preventable blindness in children. 4 Diseases Caused by a Lack of Essential Vitamins and Minerals Later dietary testing on prisoners confirmed his results. THERAPEUTIC USES  Cardiovascular diseases. Here are a few of those maladies. Due to lack of cure, several sailors died of this disease during long voyages. Vitamin D deficiency. The chickens that ate the white rice came down with beriberi-like symptoms, while the others stayed healthy. A lack of B12 can cause the same symptoms as folate deficiency, leading to vitamin B12 deficiency anemias like pernicious anemia. 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. irregular heart beat. Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C, whose chemical name, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin term for scurvy, scorbutus. Around the turn of the 20th century, people began to notice that despite subsisting on just as much corn as poor Europeans, poor Mesoamerican natives didn’t come down with the condition. A nutritional deficiency can be caused by intake of inadequate nutrients, or a defect in the body’s absorption mechanism. An underlying disorder may be metabolic – as in a genetic defect for converting tryptophan to niacin – or from lifestyle choices that increase vitamin needs, such as smoking or drinking alcohol. However, after years of study, he came to the conclusion that “white rice is poisonous.” He discovered this by feeding a group of chickens solely white rice, and another group unpolished brown rice. The superior taste of the milled white rice led many locals to abandon the local (unpolished) brown rice, and in doing so, abandon their primary source of thiamine. Page 110 Share Cite Suggested Citation: "8 Vitamins, Minerals, and Chronic Diseases." Artificially added nutrients may not make a food “healthy,” but they do stave off several debilitating, and sometimes fatal, diseases of malnutrition. The Sinhalese term “beri-beri” means, “I cannot, I cannot,” and derives from the inability to perform even the simplest of tasks once the polyneuritis (nerve inflammation) caused by the deficiency of vitamin B1 (thiamine) has permanently damaged the neurons, when the condition has progressed to the end-stage. Vitamins and micronutrients Vitamin poisoning is the condition of overly high storage levels of vitamins, which can lead to toxic symptoms. Because lack of minerals can cause several other health diseases. From the 1860s to the turn of the 20th century, people whose plant consumption was limited to the polished white rice would often come down with weakness, pain, weight loss, difficulty walking, and emotional disturbances. The alkali solution freed up the niacin that was present in the grain, but previously inaccessible. Therefore, vitamin C-rich food items should be eaten raw. Some countries still ship unfortified cornmeal rather than corn masa (nixtamalized corn) or fortified cornmeal to developing countries or to their own impoverished populations. 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. Lead to deficiencies of vitamins A, D, E, and K. - Consequence of liver + galbladder disease, IBD (Crohn's, celiac), and cystic fibrosis. This belief was reinforced when much of France eliminated corn as a food staple and virtually eradicated the condition. Even into the 20th century, conditions caused by a lack of certain vitamins or minerals were endemic to North America and Europe. 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. This condition is largely confined to Asia, especially in countries where boiled rice is a staple. when your small intestine is damaged, it can’t absorb vitamins and minerals. 39 40. 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. 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. This lesson covers various diseases caused by deficiency of VITAMINS & MINERALS in our diet. 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