Treatment FAQ

what is ascorbic acid resonsible for in treatment of scurvy

by Dr. Rolando Kihn IV Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
image

As a clinical manifestation of severe vitamin C deficiency, scurvy is caused by ascorbic acid's role in collagen synthesis.May 8, 2022

Medication

Ascorbic Acid. The exact mechanism of action of ascorbic acid for the treatment of scurvy is unknown. It is believed that the administration restores the body pool of ascorbic acid. The recommended adult dose is 200 mg IV daily, and treatment should not exceed 7 days. If there is no improvement in scorbutic symptoms,...

Therapy

Today is it known that a lack of dietary vitamin C (ascorbic acid) causes scurvy, but vitamins were not discovered until the 20th century. To compound matters, many nonhuman mammals can synthesize ascorbic acid.

Self-care

Scurvy is a nondiscriminatory disease process resulting from a nutritional deficiency of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). The severe vitamin deficiency produces a breakdown in the cellular structure of the body. This case report describes a middle-age woman with a history of edema, bruising of the lower e …

Nutrition

It is a Vitamin C compound specially formulated for persons who are experiencing Vitamin C deficiency but cannot tolerate ordinary Ascorbic acid forms due to its acidity. The addition of the calcium salt in Calcium Ascorbate makes the compound less acidic, with the added benefit of increasing calcium absorption.

What is the mechanism of action of ascorbic acid for scurvy?

What is the relationship between vitamin C and scurvy?

What is the pathophysiology of scurvy?

What is ascorbic acid used for?

image

Why ascorbic acid is used in treatment of scurvy?

Scurvy happens when there is a lack of vitamin C, or ascorbic acid. The deficiency leads to symptoms of weakness, anemia, gum disease, and skin problems. This is because vitamin C is needed for making collagen, an important component in connective tissues.

Is ascorbic acid used to treat scurvy?

Treating scurvy Scurvy is easily treated by adding some vitamin C to your diet such as fresh fruit and vegetables. A GP may also recommend taking vitamin C supplements (also called ascorbic acid) until you feel better. Most people treated for scurvy feel better within 48 hours and make a full recovery within 2 weeks.

What is ascorbic acid responsible for?

Ascorbic Acid is a natural water-soluble vitamin (Vitamin C). Ascorbic acid is a potent reducing and antioxidant agent that functions in fighting bacterial infections, in detoxifying reactions, and in the formation of collagen in fibrous tissue, teeth, bones, connective tissue, skin, and capillaries.

What does ascorbic acid do in vitamin C?

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble nutrient found in some foods. In the body, it acts as an antioxidant, helping to protect cells from the damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are compounds formed when our bodies convert the food we eat into energy.

What is the mechanism of action of ascorbic acid?

Mechanism of Action Two transporters are involved: SVCTs (sodium-dependent vitamin C transporters) and hexose transporters. The site for absorption is the distal small intestine and is regulated by renal excretion. Usual dietary doses of up to 100 mg/day are almost completely absorbed.

Which is used for the treatment of scurvy?

Ascorbic acid (Ascor, Vita-C, C-Time, Ascocid, Fruit C, Acerola C 500, Chew-C) Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) administered orally or parenterally effectively cures infantile and adult scurvy. This vitamin is used by the body for collagen synthesis and tissue repair.

How does ascorbic acid prevent browning?

Ascorbic acid is widely used as an anti-browning agent. The mechanism underlying the anti-browning activity of ascorbic acid appears to rely on its reducing activity. Although ascorbic acid does not directly interact with PPO enzyme, it inhibits enzymatic browning by reducing oxidized substrates [33].

How does ascorbic acid act as an antioxidant?

As an antioxidant, vitamin C provides protection against oxidative stress-induced cellular damage by scavenging of reactive oxygen species, vitamin E-dependent neutralization of lipid hydroperoxyl radicals, and by protecting proteins from alkylation by electrophilic lipid peroxidation products.

How does ascorbic acid prevent oxidation?

Ascorbic acid in foods is a good electron donor, donating hydrogen atoms to other molecules, to reduce other food components and terminate oxidation chain reactions. Oxidized ascorbic acid is relatively stable and will not initiate a new round of food oxidation (Niki, 1991).

Why is vitamin C called ascorbic acid?

Later on, Szent Györgyi and Haworth chemically identified "C" as ascorbic acid, and named it so because ascorbic means "anti-scurvy." Over the next century, what we now know as vitamin C became one of the most popular drugs in human history.

Is ascorbic acid an antioxidant?

Ascorbic acid and its esters function as antioxidants with some substrates by protecting double bonds and scavenging oxygen.

What's the difference between vitamin C and ascorbic acid?

The key difference between vitamin C and ascorbic acid is that the ascorbic acid is the term that we use to name the purest form of vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is the chemical name of vitamin C. However, vitamin C always is not ascorbic acid, though many people use these terms interchangeably.

Are You Confident of the Diagnosis?

Patients with scurvy may have a history of unusual or restrictive diets, particularly those deficient in citrus fruits.

Treatment Options

Vitamin C supplementation either intravenously (for severe cases) or orally (for mild to moderate cases) is advised. Once supplementation is completed, maintenance therapy is needed to prevent recurrence of the disease.

Optimal Therapeutic Approach for this Disease

Treatment responses are rapid and often remit within 24 hours of initiating therapy. Once vitamin C levels are repleted, symptoms often resolve within about a week of adequate repletion. Once symptoms resolve, maintenance therapy should be instituted.

Patient Management

Dietary maneuvers to incorporate foods containing vitamin C are often sufficient to maintain vitamin C stores. These include citrus fruits and green leafy vegetables such as broccoli and spinach.

What is the Evidence?

Bown, SR. Scurvy: How a surgeon, a mariner, and a gentleman solved the greatest medical mystery of the age of sail. 2003. (A wonderful historical recounting of scurvy during the Age of Sail, with a focus on the work of James Lind and other physicians who helped characterize the cause and treatment of scurvy.)

What is scurvy vitamin C?

Scurvy is better known as severe vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is an essential dietary nutrient. It plays a role in the development and functioning of several bodily structures and processes, including:

How to treat scurvy in adults?

It’s also often added to juices, cereals, and snack foods. If you suspect you have a mild case of scurvy, eating at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily is the easiest way to treat the condition. Oral vitamin C supplements are also widely available and the vitamin is included in most multivitamins.

What fruits and vegetables contain vitamin C?

Sources of vitamin C. Citrus fruits like oranges, limes, and lemons have traditionally been used to prevent and treat scurvy. Several other fruits and vegetables contain higher doses of vitamin C than citrus fruits. Many prepared foods, like juices and cereals, also contain added vitamin C.

How long does it take for scurvy to show?

A deficiency in the vitamin causes widespread symptoms. Typically signs of scurvy begin after at least four weeks of severe, continual vitamin C deficiency. Generally, however, it takes three months or more for symptoms to develop.

What is the blood test for scurvy?

The blood test will be used to check the levels of vitamin C in your blood serum. Generally, people with scurvy have blood serum levels of vitamin C less than 11 µmol/L.

What are the symptoms of scurvy?

Symptoms and complications associated with long-term, untreated scurvy include: severe jaundice, which is yellowing of the skin and eyes. generalized pain, tenderness, and swelling. hemolysis, a type of anemia where red blood cells break down . fever.

What does it mean when an infant has scurvy?

Infants with scurvy will be irritable, anxious, and difficult to soothe. They may also appear to be paralyzed, lying with their arms and legs extended halfway out. Infants with scurvy may also develop weak, brittle, bones prone to fractures and hemorrhaging, or bleeding.

What is Calcium Ascorbate?

Calcium Ascorbate is the calcium salt of ascorbic acid. It is a Vitamin C compound specially formulated for persons who are experiencing Vitamin C deficiency but cannot tolerate ordinary Ascorbic acid forms due to its acidity.

Calcium Ascorbate Synthesis

Calcium Ascorbate is synthesized from a combination of Ascorbic acid and Calcium Carbonate. Initially, ascorbic acid is dissolved in water, then reacted with calcium carbonate. With efficient temperature regulation, crystal form Calcium Ascorbate is thereafter obtained.

How does Calcium Ascorbate work?

Calcium Ascorbate works to increase Vitamin C levels among persons who are suffering from deficiency of the said nutrient. Among individual users who are not suffering from Vitamin C deficiency, the compound may also work to enhance immunity, promote healthy cellular function, and protect bones and muscles from rapid deterioration.

Calcium Ascorbate health benefits

Calcium Ascorbate supplementation may provide various health benefits which include the following:

Calcium Ascorbate side effects

Common side effects associated with Calcium Ascorbate supplementation include either diarrhea or constipation, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and heartburn. Generally, these symptoms are expected to disappear after the first few doses.

Calcium Ascorbate dosage

Most sources provided that the recommended daily dose for Calcium Ascorbate should not exceed 2000mg per day. The said recommended dose may vary depending on the individual user’s age, weight, and overall physical condition.

Where to buy bulk Calcium Ascorbate?

Calcium Ascorbate is available in bulk from legitimate and well-known online ingredient suppliers like Nutriavenue. Our company is preferred by many clients from all over the world as we are registered with the FDA as an ingredient supplier and recognized by Halal, GMP, and Kosher.

When was the treatise on the scurvy published?

The confusing result— A Treatise on the Scurvy —was published in 1753, in which only a few paragraphs were devoted to his shipboard experiment, and poor diet was identified as just one of several causes.

How many cases of scurvy did Lind treat?

After two months at sea, scurvy began to appear among the crew. When Lind had 12 cases to treat, he divided them into pairs. All the men received the same care, food, and drink, plus one of six possible treatments.

How many sailors died from scurvy?

It has been estimated the disease killed more than 2 million sailors between the 16th and 18th centuries. On a lengthy voyage, the loss of half the crew was common, although in extreme cases it could be much worse. Vasco da Gama lost 116 of 170 men on his first voyage to India in 1499, almost all to scurvy.

What did the Seamen eat to ward off scurvy?

Seamen had long known that eating green vegetation could ward off scurvy. When Anson’s men started to exhibit the first symptoms of the disease during his passage around Cape Horn, he made his way to the fertile island of Juan Fernández, where his men gorged on a plant called “scurvy grass.”.

Who was the Midshipman who was a scurvy survivor?

Midshipman (and future admiral) Augustus Keppel was one of the lucky survivors—at the cost of all his hair and teeth. Despite many efforts to find a cure for scurvy, 18th-century science was ill-equipped for the challenge. Medicine was dominated by Hippocrates’ 2,000-year-old theories of balancing the four humors.

Who read the accounts of Anson's voyage with horror and set out to find a cure?

James Lind , a Royal Navy surgeon, read the accounts of Anson’s voyage with horror and set out to find a cure. He started by surveying the existing literature and noted several clues that pointed toward diet. Seamen had long known that eating green vegetation could ward off scurvy.

image

Are You Confident of The Diagnosis?

Treatment Options

Optimal Therapeutic Approach For This Disease

Patient Management

Medically reviewed by
Dr. Karthikeya T M
Your provider will work with you to develop a care plan that may include one or more of these treatment options.
Usually, patients are seen to improve in 24 hours after treatment and it resolves in 1-2 weeks. Treatment involves taking vitamin C supplements like citrus fruits.
Medication

Vitamin C supplements: Used to counter anorexia.

Ascorbic acid

Therapy

Intravenous therapy:Fluids containing vitamin C supplements.

Self-care

Always talk to your provider before starting anything.

Eat foods rich in vitamin C such as citrus fruits, eggs, tomatoes, potatoes.

Nutrition

Foods to eat:

  • Foods rich in vitamin C such as liver, oyster, fresh meat
  • Fruits such as kiwi fruit, grapes, oranges, papaya
  • Vegetables such as broccoli, sprouts, cabbage, spinach

Foods to avoid:

  • Alcohol consumption
  • Unbalanced diet

Specialist to consult

Nutritionist
Specializes in the subject of nutrition and advises on matters of food.
Primary care physician
Specializes in the acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health.

What Is The Evidence?

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9