Talk:Beriberi

message: this page: http://chemistry.gsu.edu/glactone/vitamins/b1/
says that Funk didn't in fact crystallize thiamine from rice hulls, but instead probably nicotinic acid.  anyone know enough about this to say?
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: I thought that nicotinic acid was thiamine. thefamouseccles 02:38, 26 Aug 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Never mind... nicotinic acid is niacin, not thiamine. thefamouseccles 02:43, 26 Aug 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  funk didn't crystallize thiamine 

message: ...on a whole heap of statements made on this page.  In particular, though, the following statement is entirely meaningless without some sort of sourcing and context: "One in every twenty people were found to have at least a mild case of Beriberi. The data were gathered in a 2000 study by the National Institute of Health Mental division."  Who?  Where?  How big was the sample?  etc etc
I'm going to clean up the article a bit, but it could do with a lot of help from someone who actually knows something about the subject Tpth 04:58, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clarification needed... 

message: I'm afraid I can't really help improve this article, as I have next to no knowledge of the disease or the history of the discovery.  However, I have just been watching a very interesting programme on BBC HD in the UK.  British TV broadcaster and personality Carol Vorderman was featured in a show called "Who Do You Think You Are?" which researches the genealogy of selected British celebrities.
In the programme, they discovered that her Great Grandfather, A.G. Vorderman was involved in the discovery of vitamin B1, thiamine deficiency and beriberi disease.  A.G. Vorderman was the Inspector of the Civil Medical Service in the Dutch East Indies in 1987.  He was responsible for discovering that prisoners in the Dutch East Indies ate polished (white) rice, which was lacking vitamin B1.  This was responsible for widespread cases of Beriberi.
Christiaan Eijkman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 for his work (with research from A.G. Vorderman) for the discovery of what would later be called vitamin B1.  For somebody who is interested in researching this subject and improving this Wikipedia entry, these two links may be of use:
http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/vitamin_b1/eijkman.html
http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/trial_records/19th_Century/vorderman/vorderman_translation.html
...in addition to some of the comments that were broadcast in the programme I have just watched (if anybody is interested in watching the relevant parts!).
Sibruk 22:25, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Discovery and A.G. Vorderman/Christiaan Eijkman

message: I degraded this article class because it doesn't seem to quite meet B class standards. It has very little inline citation and provides very little information other than a very brief, basic outline of the information. 134.84.5.21 (talk) 20:33, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Class 

message: I'm certainly not an expert, but my understanding is that polished rice was an introduction from the West.
"In Asia, where polished white rice (milled rice that has had its husk, bran, and germ removed) was the common staple food of the middle class, beriberi resulting from lack of vitamin B1 was endemic. In 1884, Takaki Kanehiro, a British-trained Japanese medical doctor of the Japanese Navy, observed that beriberi was endemic among low-ranking crew who often ate nothing but rice, but not among crews of Western navies and officers who consumed a Western-style diet."
It seems to me the article blames "oriental" culture and eating habits among the poor for beriberi, rather than acknowledging imperialism and poverty as the root causes.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.174.178.227 (talk) 00:45, 14 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Criticism 

message: No, that's just how you read it through the eyeglasses of political correctness. And nowhere is "oriental" (a non-PC term) mentioned in the entire article. Seems you have a bad case of "PC".  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.199.149.225 (talk) 20:07, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Criticism of criticism 

message: I rearranged these sentences during copyediting, which may delink the implied criticism. --Molly-in-md (talk) 12:26, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Fixed

message: After copyediting, I added a "more footnotes" tag. There are some good references in the "Bibliography" section that would benefit the article (example: the news article about beriberi in Haitian prisons). I will return to address this tag if I have future time, but others should feel free to incorporate additional info/references from the bio section as they can. --Molly-in-md (talk) 12:22, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  "More footnotes" tag