A comedian who got scurvy in his freshman year of college has talked about his experiences on his TikTok channel.
Matt Storrs told Newsweek he was diagnosed with the disease, which is caused by a severe vitamin C deficiency, after making poor meal choices at the diner by his dorm and eating chicken fingers for three months.
First associated with pre-18th century sailors, scurvy is commonly thought of as a condition of the past.
But research published in the scientific journal BMJ Case Reports on Tuesday suggested that the disease may be on the rise, connected with the cost-of-living crisis and the prevalence of weight-loss surgery.
"My freshman year of college, I got scurvy," Storrs told Newsweek. "I first noticed the weakness in the gym—I was getting tired after just a few minutes of exercise."
Then, he said, he would feel sore as if he had worked out for hours, "like I was one quick movement away from pulling a muscle."
"That soreness stuck around for days and didn't seem to go away no matter home much I stretched or how much water I drank," said Storrs. "I felt the physical feeling of being dehydrated, but I knew I wasn't."
Storrs started falling asleep in class despite early bedtimes, and having to take breaks if he walked too fast from class to class. And his gums started bleeding.
"My gums bleeding was especially concerning because I was very diligent about flossing," he added.
In the video, Storrs joked that, no, he "did not do a semester at sea in the 1860s" but had been eating low-cost chicken fingers for three months.
He went to see his doctor, who asked him some questions about his symptoms and diet.
"When I told him I had been eating most of my meals from the diner by my dorm, his eyes lit up," he told Newsweek. "He gave me a prescription to drink orange juice once a day."
Storrs's scurvy was much less severe than the case discussed in the recent The BMJ paper. In the latter, a middle-aged man's legs were covered with tiny, painful red-brown spots, resembling a rash.
The man had had bariatric surgery: a procedure where the digestive tract is surgically altered to encourage weight loss, for instance by reducing the size of the stomach.
Bariatric surgery can make it more difficult to digest food, so the man was prescribed nutritional supplements to keep him healthy—but he had stopped taking them because he couldn't afford them.
Blood tests revealed the man had no detectable vitamin C levels, and very low levels of other key nutrients, so the doctors diagnosed him with scurvy and prescribed him vitamin supplements—and the man recovered.
The study authors wrote that the prevalence of scurvy was unclear, as there were no statistics and cases were still relatively rare.
However, they said that they believed that the rising cost of living and an increase in procedures such as bariatric surgery may be contributing to scurvy becoming more common.
"I have had a lot of people tell me in the comments and in person about their scurvy diagnosis," said Storrs. "It seems like a lot happened when people were younger, first time alone at college like me."
He also shared that one of his friends had told him that he had had scurvy too, saying the shared experience brought them closer.
"It was an oddly comforting moment where I didn't feel as dumb for how horrible my food choices had been," said Storrs.
The comedian said he wasn't surprised that scurvy seemed to be becoming more common.
"By the time I got it, I had been cooking for years," he said. "I took for granted my ability to use fresh ingredients and have a varied diet, when I found myself on campus, with limited funds, and no access to a safe and working kitchen.
"I can see people going through the same situation when their access to fresh and varied food becomes limited."
For the middle-aged man featured in BMJ Case Reports, access to healthy food had also been an issue. He had told doctors that he was short of cash and neglected his diet, sometimes skipping meals altogether.
Storrs said that sharing his story was a "relief."
"If these embarrassing moments are out in the world, I have a chance to find people that made similar mistakes, or at least people that will get a little joy," he said.
Storrs added that his videos also offered a little chance for nutritional education, and that some commenters had said they were going to eat some broccoli or drink some orange juice.
"That might be a small win, but it helps a little bit," Storr said.
Vitamin C is a key essential nutrient found in fruits and vegetables. People are at risk of developing scurvy if they consume less than 10mg of vitamin C per day.
To put that into perspective, half a cup of black currants contains approximately 200mg of vitamin C, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Reference
Dermawan, A., Eshon, S., Danagher, K., & Senaratne, S. (2024). Scurvy—a reemerging disease with the rising cost of living and number of bariatric surgical procedures. BMJ Case Reports, 17. https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2024-261082
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