Dozens of Cases of Old-Time Disease Scurvy Reported in Canada
Meanwhile, based on recent polls and political developments, Justin Trudeau’s chances for reelection in 2025 appear to be slim.
Progressives often cite Canada as a glorious utopia of good health and freedom.
Those of us who get our news from more reliable sources know that the opposite is the case.
But, personally, I did not have the return of the scourge of 15th-century sailors on my 2024 bingo card either.
Research by a young Canadian doctor working in Hamilton suggests that scurvy, a disease we mostly associate with life on sailing ships centuries ago, may be more prevalent in modern Canada than we might have thought.
Scurvy is a caused by vitamin C deficiency, usually due to a poor diet that doesn’t include enough fruits and vegetables. Symptoms include bruising, weakness, anemia, difficulty in wound healing, gum decay and loose teeth. Untreated it can lead to hemorrhage and death.
It also takes very little vitamin C to prevent scurvy. A single orange has five times the daily dose of vitamin C necessary to prevent scurvy.
A Canadian public health expert thinks the problem may be larger-in-scope than initially realized.
“Vitamin C comes from lots of different food sources, but if you don’t get those food sources, the body can’t do what it needs to do,” said Dr. Jeff Irvine, a physician researcher with Northern Medical Services in La Ronge, Sask.
Irvine was asked to help investigate the prevalence of scurvy in his northern community of La Ronge after his colleague confirmed a single case of the disease.
Irvine looked back at the last 51 vitamin C blood tests performed on patients in La Ronge over the last 14 years. Fifty of the tests took place between mid-2023 and spring 2024, with 27 of those results showing low levels of vitamin C. Those blood results paired with physical exam results indicated the 27 patients were positive for scurvy, Irvine said.
The patients’ ages ranged from 20 to 80 years old. Nearly eight in 10 were Indigenous.
“We have reason to believe that the scope of the problem might be larger than we think at this point,” said Dr. Nnamdi Ndubuka, a medical health officer with the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority.
Meanwhile, based on recent polls and political developments, Justin Trudeau’s chances for reelection in 2025 appear to be slim. The Canadian Prime Minister is facing significant challenges and declining popularity.
Only about 25% of Canadians approve of Trudeau’s performance as Prime Minister, while nearly two-thirds disapprove. The Liberal Party is significantly behind the Conservatives, with recent polls showing a gap of 14 to 20 points.
Canada’s Liberal Party–led government and its increasingly unpopular Prime Minister face a growing risk of early elections they appear all but certain to lose. After winning power with a majority of parliamentary seats in 2015, elections in 2019 left Trudeau’s Liberals with a minority government which they retained following a snap election in 2021. Then, on Sept. 16 of this year, the Liberals hit an iceberg when they lost a safe seat in Montreal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, in a by-election. With apologies to Frank Sinatra, if Trudeau’s Liberals can’t make it there, they can’t make it anywhere. The winner instead: the Bloc Québécois.
Pollster Angus Reid found in September that nearly two-thirds of respondents nationwide disapproved of Trudeau’s performance as PM. The latest polls show that Canada’s Conservative Party, now led by Pierre Poilievre, could win nearly four times as many seats as the Liberals. Voters favor the Conservatives on jobs, the cost-of-living crisis, taxes, immigration, and crime.
Here’s hoping for better results in 2025 for the good people of Canada.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
“Progressives often cite Canada as a glorious utopia of good health and freedom.”
“We’re all out of citrus fruit. Have you considered killilng yourself?”
More reason to wall off both borders.
Huh? Scurvy’s not contagious.
No, but liberal idiocy is.
There is no indication of who they are surveying for this disease. Might I suggest the record numbers of 3rd world illegals the Progressives up there in Snow Mexico Castro’s Kid let in might be weighting the numbers as they are in the US by bringing in all kinds of 15th Century diseases we formally conquered?
I like “Snow Mexico” but prefer “North Cuba” or more accurately, “The People’s Democratic Republic of Kanadastan”.
The report did say who was surveyed: An area in northern Saskatchewan, and it was primarily Indigenous people in the survey who were being diagnosed with it. They talk a lot about “food insecurity” in the article, because fresh fruits and vegetables have to be trucked in and are expensive to purchase or you have to grow them yourself. But they don’t mention other lifestyle problems that are contributing to it, the big one being alcohol abuse.
First of all, they did say. We’re talking about Indians, or whatever the Canadian version of them like to be called.
And there is no way that any “3rd world illegals” are bringing in scurvy. Scurvy is not contagious and not “brought in” anywhere. Every single person who got scurvy in northern Saskatchewan developed it right there, and did not bring it from anywhere else.
Besides, I doubt there are any illegal immigrants up there. Why would they go there?
“Besides, I doubt there are any illegal immigrants up there. Why would they go there?”
To see the Northern Lights.
Yo are telling us you know nothing about scurvy without stating that fact.
How on earth and hell do people here believe that scurvy is a contagious disease? I learned all about scurvy and the early American settlers in the 6th grade. Some people here need to go back to grade school and get a proper education.
Please find it in your heart to forgive my ignorance, if you have one.
And sixth grade was the last grade you completed.
I think I’ll go make a G&T
That’ll help with malaria, but it won’t do much for scurvy.
A screwdriver, then.
That only helps if you’ve got scruvy.
Twist of lime in the G&T. Broad spectrum coverage.
Exactly, everybody knows a G&T needs a healthy squeeze of lime
Nah, see below. Lime hasn’t got enough Vitamin C. You want lemon, and you probably want more than you would put in a G&T. Go with the screwdriver for scurvy and follow up with the G&T for malaria.
Of course it does. A proper Gin and Tonic has not only the tonic for malaria but a squirt of lime.
Add some lime.
Not just 15th century. Scurvy was common all the way into the 20th century. Even the Royal Navy, which thought it had beaten it with lemon juice in the 18th century, saw it return when it switched to lime juice, which doesn’t have enough Vitamin C. Though even the lemon juice wasn’t as effective as it should have been, since they used to boil it to death, thus destroying much of the Vitamin C in it.
That’s the problem when you stumble on a remedy that works, but you don’t know why.
Limes have a higher content per weight of Vitamin C than lemons.
No, they don’t. Lemons have about 80% more Vitamin C than do limes. This reference gives 0.53 mg/g for lemons, and only 0.29 mg/g for limes.
Read this: How scurvy was cured, and then the cure was lost
From the article linked there: “Tests on animals would later show that fresh lime juice has a quarter of the scurvy-fighting power of fresh lemon juice”.
The apparent lack of knowledge about basic nutrition is disturbing. Take a multivitamin, eat some fruit, maybe drink some orange or grapefruit juice.
Then again we have an obesity problem here in the US. Likely from folks consuming too much processed food and lack of exercise. Something like 20% of those 19 and younger are obese while 42% of adults in the US are obese. FWIW those stats don’t include the folks who are merely overweight.
BMI is a joke. One tenth of a pound and you’re suddenly overweight or obese? Go pound sand.
It’s not really a question of knowledge. We’re talking about native communities in the far North, which range from short growing seasons to no growing season. The traditional diet of some groups is almost entirely carnivorous, and vegetables need to be flown in at great cost.
Multivitamins and other vitamin supplements seem like a relatively cheap option and would be far easier to ship given their low weight and low bulk.
BMI is an imperfect but useful measurement for comparison across and between populations. The designation of ‘obese’ kicks in at 30+ while overweight begins at 25+ with normal running from 18-25. It is a good starting point to measure across a population. I, like many folks with more athletic builds (muscular) have always been ‘overweight’ by BMI so I definitely don’t believe it should stand alone for INDIVIDUAL determinations of health/fitness level. Acing the APFT then having to do a tape test b/c I was ‘too heavy’ (muscle is heavier than fat) always seemed like a waste of time.
Let’s ignore BMI and just look at just height/weight. In 1960 the average man was 5 ft 7″ weighing 166 lbs. By 2000 average height increased by a single inch but weight increased to 191 lbs. Today average height remains 5ft 8″ but average weight has increased to 200 lbs. For women the average weight in 1960 was 140 lbs, in 2000 it was 164 and today is up to 174 lbs and that’s at an average height of 5ft 4″.
We can complain, as I definitely do, about BMI being imprecise on an individual basis but the fact is the average US adult is fatter than in the recent past, far fatter. A quick look around at an airport, shopping mall, stadium or other venue with a large capacity crowd will absolutely reveal the fact that many/most are fat. Heck, go to the beach or a lake and see for yourself how many plus size folks.
There is a push to require govt healthcare to pay for anti diabetes meds to treat obesity b/c folks are too damn lazy to exercise and too undisciplined to keep to a healthy diet. You have to have seen the ads for these drugs, they are all over the few things I watch on TV. This isn’t b/c everyone is in tip top shape from hitting the gym, jogging and healthy outdoor pursuits, it’s b/c US adults and children are fatter than ever.
And when ten years from now we discover that those drugs had entirely undiscovered harmful side-effects, the few things you watch on TV will be overrun instead by ambulance chaser ads.
Henry,
Yeah I think we already moved into phase two you predict. Those muich hyped diabetes drugs used off label as ‘weight loss’ miracle cure have been ID as having bad long-term outcomes for pure weight loss, the harms don’t seem work the risks. They cost out the wazoo which is why Pharma wants the Medicaid and other govt programs to pay for them. Lots of Attorney Ads already; ‘have you been injured, call now to get the justice and compensation you deserve, our trained and professional staff is standing by’.
Gotta love how it’s against bar association ethics for lawyers to publicly solicit clients, yet those same lawyers getting paid “non-attorney spokespeople” to do it for them is A-OK.
I can’t believe there has not been one mention of The African Queen with all the mentioning of gin.
What am I missing? Why isn’t the (short) term cure a daily vitamin supplement?
Out of curiosity I did a search on scurvy rates on Native Americans. What I found was interesting. The re-emergence of scurvy may have more to do with changes to traditional native (at least among the Inuit) then lack of access to citrus and other fruits and veggies. The question of how they stayed free from scurvy without access to fresh fruit had long puzzled scientist According to several articles the raw and barely cooked seafood and meat which were part of the traditional diet did contain high amounts of vitamin C. A move away from their traditional foods and an embrace of the typical SAD probably plays a large part.
Note: The articles were concerned with Inuit population. I am not sure if the indigenous population mentioned in the post includes them or is not concerned with them at all. I don’t know if the diets of other natives was investigated in regards to scurvy.
Cooking and most means of preserving foods involve dehydration, which reduces or removes any water-soluble nutrients like vit. C. Hence why scurvy was so widespread in the Age of Sail, as sailors on months-long voyages had to rely on preserved food supplies. Being water-soluble also means you can’t store up a reserve to use later, as any excess will pass out with the urine.
Traditional Inuit avoided scurvy the same way carnivorous predators do. Raw or only slightly cooked meat retains the vit. C consumed by the prey animal. And being in an Arctic climate minimized spoilage and the need to cook or preserve.
If you look at Google Earth, you’ll find places in Canada’s far north, or even not so far north but far from roads, which are, in effect, towns serviced by airfields.
So weight is an issue in supplying. But a bottle of multivitamins per family once a month shouldn’t cost too much in extra gas.
Question is whether the folks will use the stuff. The insistence on “traditional” might be so serious that the white man’s pills are forbidden or something.