Centuries-old ‘sailor’s disease’ sees resurgence. Are weight loss drugs to blame?
It’s the 21st century, but that doesn’t mean Americans can’t still contract diseases from the 18th, 17th, or even 16th centuries. The black plague still kills a couple of hundred people a year. The latest antique malady to make a comeback joins a host of wild GLP-1 side effects.
We’re talking about scurvy, a disease common amongst sailors hundreds of years ago. Not a sailor, but looking to lose some weight? The results could be the same: a disease caused by severe long-term Vitamin C deficiency.
Clare Collins, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at the Newcastle School of Health Sciences, conducted research with the Hunter Medical Research Institute and the University of Newcastle on the long-term effects of GLP-1 drugs.
“I’ve heard this anecdotally from GPs saying that we’ve noted cases of scurvy,” Collins told the Australian Financial Review.
The FDA recently approved new GLP-1 pills, meaning the use of medications like Ozempic will become much more prevalent.
What is scurvy?
Scurvy is caused by long-term, severe Vitamin C deficiency. It can cause extreme tiredness, fatigue, tooth loss, joint pain, bleeding gums and poor wound healing.
Worst-case scenario? It can lead to jaundice, neuropathy, deadly bleeding, and infection. The good news? Life handing you lemons is a life-saver in this case, as taking Vitamin C and eating Vitamin C-rich foods can fix it all.
The concern, though, is that the disease is considered rare in developed nations, yet it’s experiencing a resurgence, and it could stem from weight-loss drugs.
New study findings
Collins found that most trials for appetite-suppressing medicines rarely measure whether patients are eating properly, leading to malnutrition and, in some cases, the ages-old disease.
She says the result comes from a lack of research into the nutritional habits of GLP-1 users.
“Nutrition plays a critical role in health, and right now it’s largely missing from the evidence,” Collins said in the new study findings.
Collins’ research found that of all trials involving adults taking weight-loss drugs, only two measured dietary intake, and one of those was unpublished.
She said they have little confidence in those findings, however, as the methods used to assess diet were rated as “poor” or, at best, “acceptable.”
“When people are eating less, the quality of what they eat matters even more,” Collins said. “If someone loses weight but their diet lacks adequate protein, fibre, vitamins or minerals, that has major concerns for their long-term muscle mass, bone health, brain health, gut health, as well as skin integrity and overall wellbeing.”
A news release from the study stated that without proper dietary data, researchers and medical professionals can’t fully understand the broader effects GLP-1 medications may have on users.
“If we only measure weight and blood sugar, we’re missing a big part of the picture,” Collins said. “Diet quality, food patterns and nutrient intake all contribute to health. They should be measured with the same rigour as other clinical outcomes.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
