Vitamins – History
Posted on December 17th, 2005 by garyPosted in Fitness, Health, Vitamins
The term “vitamins” dates back to the early 1900’s when a doctor called Casimir Funk used the name “vitamines” in his research that discovered active properties in foods that prevented diseases. The word “vitamines” comes from the Latin “vitalis” meaning “vitally important” and “animes” which are a group of chemical compounds of ammonia.
In reality it can be said that the relationship between a person’s health and their diet was studied as far back as ancient Egypt. Findings from that period show that certain foods were recommended to improve or sustain one’s health.
Researches have also found notations by ancient scribes of Sumeria that discuss how foods could affect health. The big change regarding the acknowledgment of diet affecting owns overall health came in the 18th century in England.
The outbreak of a deadly disease called scurvy was killing more sailors than actual enemy action. The disease called symptoms such as dizziness, teeth loss, swollen gums and heavy bleeding. Although the disease had been around for over 300 years, the British decided to dedicate resources to stop this killer disease.
A Scottish naval doctor and surgeon who has seen first hand the effects of this disease, worked on finding a cure. James Lind discovered that the disease could be prevented by eating citrus fruit. Although he published his finings in 1753, in “Treatise on the Scurvy”, the British Government did not move to use his advice until the year 1800. Over 100,000 British sailors are estimated to have died in the period of time between his published work and the decision to use the information. The naval forces began adding lemons and limes to the sailor’s diets in order to prevent the development of scurvy.
In the late 1800’s, a disease known as beriberi was prevalent in southern Asia. An English doctor, William Fletcher began working in Kuala Lumpur to test the nutritional aspects of the disease. He found that persons who included polished rice in their diets were likely to contract the deadly disease. Over seven years later, Casimir Funk expanded on Fletchers findings and was able to coin the term vitamins.
As more scientists worked on curing diseases it lead to the discovery of vitamins that could actually prevent these diseases.
The next vitamin to be discovered was vitamin A, by two scientists at Yale University, Lafayette Mendel and Thomas Osbourne. They had discovered it as a growth promoter in betters with improved bodily developments.
Vitamin B was another growth promoter that was discovered in cow’s milk. Vitamin B grew into an actual group of vitamins (B1, B2, etc), as they are all sourced in the same foods and have similar functions in the body – they always work better when all in the group are present.
Vitamin D was discovered by Edward Mellanby and was used to treat rickets, which was a disease of bone softening that was affecting children. Since his discovery, this vitamin was used to enrich milk and is still done today.
In 1922, Vitamin E was discovered by Herbert Evans and Katherine Bishop. They were able to find this fat-soluble vitamin in wheat and green leaves.
Vitamin K was discovered in the late 1920’s by Dane Henrik Dam. Dam would go on to win a Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1943.
Eventually a total of thirteen vitamins were discovered and scientists then worked to find ways to artificially produce them. This lead to companies beginning production of these vitamins, and now vitamins are a multi billion dollar industry.
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