Vitamin Discoveries and Disasters

History, Science, and Controversies

Frances R. Frankenburg MD

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780313354762
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: General Health

A new work on the history of vitamins and the brilliant men and women who discovered the existence and nature of these small molecules so vital to our health. Vitamin Discoveries and Disasters: History, Science, and Controversies describes the emergence of nutritional science and its contributions to our understanding of how the body functions. It is an absorbing look at the men and women, many little known in their lifetimes, whose medical detective work helped us conquer a number of devastating health conditions, including some forms of mental illness. Each chapter of Vitamin Discoveries and Disasters focuses on a specific vitamin, describing the researchers, the research, and the historic and scientific contexts for its discovery. Together, these chapters chart the ongoing conflict between physicians who saw illness as caused by organisms and those who saw illness as a result of dietary deficiency. A concluding chapter shows how our stronger grasp of the effects of vitamin deficiencies on large populations can be used to the utmost benefit of society.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Rats That Don’t Grow and Have Sore Eyes: Vitamin A (Retinol), the Anti-Night Blindness Vitamin
• 2. Soldiers in Pain and Staggering Chickens: Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), the Anti-Beriberi Vitamin
• 3. Dermatitis, Diarrhea, Dementia, and Death: Vitamin B3 (Niacin), the Anti-Pellagra Vitamin
• 4. Deadly Anemia, Sludge, and the Nobel Prize for a Woman: Vitamins B9 (Folate) and B12 (Cobalamin), the Two Anti-Anemia Vitamins
• 5. Sailors, Scurvy, the Guinea Pig, and the Nobel Prize: Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), the Anti-Scurvy Vitamin
• 6. Soft Bones, Lack of Light, and the ‘‘Sunshine Hormone’’: Vitamin D (Calcitriol), the Anti-Rickets Vitamin
• 7. Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing? Toxicity from Vitamins
• 8. Conclusion: Victories, but Lingering Concerns
• Appendix A Vitamin A and the Eye
• Appendix B Calcium, Bones, and Collagen
• Appendix C Anemia
• Appendix D How Much of Each Vitamin Should I Take?
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index