Thread by @rex_hodl

Buckle up folks, the history of scurvy is not what you think! The real story is WILD 🤯

Scurvy was thought to be caused by vitamin C deficiency. But there's surprisingly little evidence linking it to low vitamin C levels. That theory doesn't hold water!💦 Sailors got scurvy after just 6-8 weeks at sea - way too fast for a deficiency disease.

Get this - populations with barely any vitamin C didn't get scurvy. Inuit, Maasai, WWII POWs, carnivores. How's that possible if it's a vitamin C deficiency?! 🤔

Truth is scurvy is more likely an ACUTE POISONING. British sailors ate boiled down animal organs called "portable soup". 🤢 Boiling livers and kidneys at high heat for a long time creates high levels of RETINOIC ACID, a vitamin A compound!

They also used lead-soldered cans🥫So we're talking retinoic acid + lead poisoning. That'll do it! No wonder they got "scurvy" so fast.

During the crusades, eating very oily vitamin A-rich eels caused "land scurvy" https://t.co/dzS2wgrMOQdash.harvard.edu/bitstream/hand…

Here we have accounts of earlier researchers inducing scurvy in animals using high dose "vitamin A"

Outbreaks of infantile scurvy correlate with the use of pasteurized milk - pointing to a common toxin, not vitamin C deficiency. What do pasteurized cow's milk and "portable soup" have in common? Quite likely, retinoic acid.

The heat from pasteurization of milk converts retinol into retinoic acid. Retinoic acid seems to be a much more toxic form of vitamin A. Is this one of the reasons why so many people tolerate raw milk better than pasteurized milk? 🥛

But wait, it gets wilder! Modern gum disease and diabetic ulcers look EXACTLY like historic scurvy symptoms.😱

So scurvy was never really cured, just renamed to the modern disease labels of gingivitis, gum disease, and diabetes!🤯 Massive vitamin C supplementation hasn't stopped those "modern" scurvy cases either.

The evidence points to scurvy not being a disease of vitamin C deficiency, but a disease due to a toxicity. Scurvy is vastly accelerated diabetic poisoning.

What else has modern medicine gotten wrong?
Question everything.

Credit to Grant Genereux for digging into the research on this. Read his more in depth article here: ggenereux.blog/2021/09/18/scu…

@NutriDetect @joshg99 @DrSteveGoeddeke @RemnantMd @kevinstock12 @thepowerofozone @NathanWiens9 @bitcoinand_beef @AgoristView @KetoCarnivore @SBakerMD @fitat45plus @JesslovesMJK

@KetoCarnivore @NutriDetect @joshg99 @DrSteveGoeddeke @RemnantMd @kevinstock12 @thepowerofozone @NathanWiens9 @bitcoinand_beef @AgoristView @SBakerMD @fitat45plus @JesslovesMJK As others have mentioned, zinc and protein improve retinol binding protein synthesis, which is protective against vit A toxicity and could help explain why adding fresh meat helps with scurvy.

@KetoCarnivore @NutriDetect @joshg99 @DrSteveGoeddeke @RemnantMd @kevinstock12 @thepowerofozone @NathanWiens9 @bitcoinand_beef @AgoristView @SBakerMD @fitat45plus @JesslovesMJK Vitamin C does seem to be protective in the context of hypervitaminosis A. Screenshots are from here:

Whether vit C is acting as direct antagonist or helping in some other way, I'm not sure. https://t.co/impsO4JmRfggenereux.blog/2018/10/08/obe…

@KetoCarnivore @NutriDetect @joshg99 @DrSteveGoeddeke @RemnantMd @kevinstock12 @thepowerofozone @NathanWiens9 @bitcoinand_beef @AgoristView @SBakerMD @fitat45plus @JesslovesMJK Vit C also slows down bile production which, in theory, would decrease the amount of stored vit A being dumped by the liver and help with vit A toxicity symptoms, in the short term.