Ventures in vitamins
Subtitle: pivotal history, science, and controversies
By: Frances R. Frankenburg.
Series: Praeger series on contemporary health and living; Praeger series on contemporary health and living
Publisher: Praeger
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Westport, CT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 143
ISBN-13: 9780313354755
Subjects: Vitamins -- History; Vitamins in human nutrition -- History; Avitaminosis -- History; Vitamins -- history; Avitaminosis -- history; Research -- history; Research Personnel -- Biography
Genres: Biography
Description: "Vitamin Discoveries and Disasters: History, Science, and Controversies describes the emergence of nutritional science and its contributions to our understanding of how the body functions. It is an absorbing look at the men and women, many little known in their lifetimes, whose medical detective work helped us conquer a number of devastating health conditions, including some forms of mental illness. Each chapter focuses on a specific vitamin, describing the researchers, the research, and the historic and scientific contexts for its discovery. Together, these chapters chart the ongoing conflict between physicians who saw illness as caused by organisms and those who saw illness as a result of dietary deficiency. A concluding chapter shows how our stronger grasp of the effects of vitamin deficiencies on large populations can be used to the utmost benefit of society."--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Rats that don't grow and have sore eyes : vitamin A, the anti-night-blindness vitamin, retinol; title: Soldiers in pain and staggering chickens : vitamin B1, the anti-beriberi vitamin, thiamine; title: Dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia, death : vitamin B3, the anti-pellagra vitamin, niacin; title: Deadly anemia, sludge, and the Nobel prize for a woman : vitamins B9 and B12, the two anti-anemia vitamins, folate and cobalamin; title: Sailors, scurvy, the guinea pig, and the Nobel prize : vitamin C, the anti-scurvy vitamin, ascorbic acid; title: Soft bones, lack of light, and the "sunshine hormone" : vitamin D, the anti-rickets vitamin, calcitriol; title: Can you have too much of a good thing? : toxicity from vitamins.