Deficiencies

Okay so last week I wanted to talk about smoothies because it is a very healthy treat. This week I’m going backwards to talk about vitamin deficiencies. I found this perfect website that provides information on each deficiency on some of  the vitamins that I talked about, treatments for those deficiencies, more food sources of that provide each vitamin, and pictures of what the deficiency look like. This post is not to scare you but to inform you about vitamin deficiencies. Fair warning though the pictures for this deficiencies are gross!

So what is a vitamin deficiency? According to Dictionary reference, vitamin deficiency is “a lack or shortage of something essential to health; an insufficiency.” Basically it’s a shortage of a certain vitamin in the body. Remember from my previous post that vitamins are essential and only needed through tiny amounts in the diet. So if you eat the foods that provide these vitamins then you should have no problems with being vitamin deficient. Nonetheless, I want to talk about some of the deficiencies that can occur if intake is insufficient. All my information can be found at Deficiency Diseases.

Vitamin A-These are several stages involved with vitamin A, but they all have to do with eyesight.  The first stage is called night blindness and it causes you to have trouble seeing at night. So if you ever have a hard time seeing in the dark, I would try and see your doctor to make sure you aren’t vitamin A deficient. I only want to focus on the first stage of vitamin A, but you look at them yourself if you are interested in reading more. The website provides pictures of eyes that and how the lack of vitamin A deficiency affected them.

Vitamin D-There are two deficiency associated with this vitamin-rickets and osteomalacia. These deficiencies have to do with bones. Rickets occurs in children and it when the bones are not fully developed and they have a hard time with crawling, walking, or posture. It looks like they have saggy bones according to the pictures. Osteomalacia occurs in adults.

Vitamin E-Vitamin E deficiency has no name and is rare in humans.

Vitamin K-The deficiency causes uncontrolled bleeding and again has no name.

Vitamin C-Vitamin C deficiency is the funniest to me because it is called scurvy. I totally think of pirates and sailing on ships. This disease causes a lot of pain and swollenness in the joints and muscles of the body. It also causes bleeding gums and loose teeth.

Thiamin or B₁- is a deficiency known as beriberi. This deficiency has a lot of symptoms like, pain, swollenness, exhaustion, and others that eventually leads to heart failure.

Riboflavin or B₂- deficiency disease name is ariboflavinosis and causes problems with the mouth.

Niacin or B₃- Pellagra is the deficiency for niacin and is also known as the 3D’s. That’s because people who have pellagra have symptoms that go in the order of diarrhea, dermatitis, and dementia. Once you get to the point of dementia there is no treatment, so please don’t let it get that far!