Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C in your diet. Without enough vitamin C, your body can't produce new collagen.
Collagen is a type of protein found in many different types of tissue in the body, including in the skin and bones. Without a new supply of collagen, the body’s tissue will begin to break down and deteriorate.
For people living in the developed world, even a relatively unhealthy and imbalanced diet should provide an adequate supply of vitamin C. Therefore, for scurvy to develop, there are usually other contributing factors. For example, cases of scurvy have been reported in:
- people with a dependency on alcohol or drugs
- homeless people
- people with complex mental health conditions, such as severe depression or schizophrenia
- elderly people who are unable or, in some cases, unwilling to maintain a healthy diet; elderly men who have recently been widowed and have little experience cooking for themselves can sometimes develop scurvy
- people having treatments such as chemotherapy, which causes nausea as a side effect; this can result in the person losing their appetite
- people who have conditions that affect their ability to digest food, such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis; both of these conditions cause inflammation inside the digestive system
- people who are on ‘fad diets’
- people with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which a person becomes very concerned about gaining weight and tries to control it by eating as little as possible
In England, scurvy in children is very rare. It usually occurs through a combination of parents having little knowledge of nutrition and being on a very low income. For example, in 2009, a case of scurvy was reported in a child whose diet only consisted of bread and jam.
