In the Middle Ages, a disease of unknown and that manifested with hemorrhage, hypotonia muscle scarring and loosening of teeth, led to a large number of deaths, especially among the crews of ships. Some felt that this was only a disease of sailors until it was discovered that was endemic in some regions, especially during the winter. Received several names alluding to his fate as "sea fever", but soon was baptized with the name you know it today: scurvy. To find your home
the popular superstition invented hundreds of stories like that produced timber ships or the sea air. Also in its treatment played a role romancing so pilgrims were tested remedies such as coffee intake of salt or mustard.
A mid-eighteenth century an English naval doctor conducted a series of trials involving patients with scurvy sailors to see, finally, that they evolved favorably after adding to your diet orange juice and lemon. And is that scurvy was not an infectious disease, as was then believed, but simply the manifestation of a lack of vitamin C.
However, it took nearly two centuries until in 1912 the Polish biochemist Casimir Funk coined the term v itamins to refer to a number of chemicals, the composition and nature varied, which can not be synthesized by the organism could be considered an exception to this rule is vitamin D, which is synthesized in a non-activated and then mature by exposure to sunlight, and which are essential in human metabolism.
The first compounds of this type that were obtained had in common the presence of a chemical group called amine, which is characterized by a nitrogen atom. And the presence of this group and its vital importance, leading to name them as "vital amines" or vitamins. By the late forties and were identified and defined all the vitamins available and it was then was discovered that not all had the amine group, although the name was already sufficiently established so as not to be altered by this fact.
currently have chemical groups that are only characteristics that define each vitamin, but are not used when classified into either group. For that you use the solubility characteristics and are thus divided into water-soluble vitamins and fat soluble. The water-soluble are those that dissolve in water and are present, among others, in foods such as fruits and vegetables. In this group are the B complex vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B8, B9 and B12) and vitamin C. On the other hand, fat-soluble vitamins are those that dissolve in fats and oils and, therefore, eaten with foods such as liver or eggs. This group of vitamins A, D, E and K. An important difference between soluble and fat-soluble vitamins is that the latter, because they dissolve in fat tissue, can be stored in the liver, not taking required daily intake, while water-soluble are not stored in the body, making to be called up more regularly.
Given the Western way of life, now it is very unlikely that someone could die from a vitamin deficiency, although in theory this would be possible in a case of severe hypovitaminosis. For Furthermore, an excess of vitamins is what is known as hypervitaminosis. In this case, we have seen that the excess can be toxic depending on the vitamin concerned. Thus it is known that vitamins A, or retinol-, D, or calciferol, and B3, or niacin, can become highly toxic in excess, while others, such as B12, or cobalamin, has no toxicity even at doses very high.
Today, scurvy is a minor concern in developed countries, but increasingly are emerging health problems associated with mild vitamin A deficiency. Thus, it is necessary to reinforce the fact that a balanced diet rich in raw plant-source of most vitamins, is essential in human development and in maintaining a healthy state. Science and the welfare state are getting more and live longer. We do, well, the better everyone's responsibility.
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