Difference between revisions of "Pellagra" - New World Encyclopedia
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| − | A [[vitamin]] [[deficiency disease]], pellegra generally is brought about by dietary lack of [[niacin]] (B<sub>3</sub>) and [[protein]], especially proteins containing the [[essential amino acid]] [[tryptophan]], which can be converted into niacin (Pitche 2005). However, there are two types of pellagra. Primary pellagra involves a diet extremely deficient in niacin-rich foods or in a form that cannot be absorbed. For example, this type of pellagra is common in areas where [[maize]] is the dietary staple, because while it contains niacin, it cannot be absorbed unless treated with alkali (as is done in the preparing tortillas). Secondary pellagra occurs when there are adequate quantities of niacin in the diet, but other conditions or | + | A [[vitamin]] [[deficiency disease]], pellegra generally is brought about by dietary lack of [[niacin]] (B<sub>3</sub>) and [[protein]], especially proteins containing the [[essential amino acid]] [[tryptophan]], which can be converted into niacin (Pitche 2005). |
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| + | However, there are two types of pellagra. Primary pellagra involves a diet extremely deficient in niacin-rich foods or niacin being present in a form that cannot be absorbed. For example, this type of pellagra is common in areas where [[maize]] is the dietary staple, because while it contains niacin, it cannot be absorbed unless treated with alkali (as is done in the preparing tortillas) (Carson-DeWitt 2004). Secondary pellagra occurs when there are adequate quantities of niacin in the diet, but other conditions or [[disease]]s interfere with its absorption or processing, such as in cases of prolonged diarrhea, cirrhosis of the liver, alcoholism, and with use of the anti-tuberculosis drug isoniazid (Carson-DeWitt 2004). Also Hartnup disease results in disordered absorption of amino acids from the intestine and kidney (Carson-DeWitt 2004). | ||
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| + | Niacin is part of the [[vitamin B|B vitamins]] or the vitamin B complex, a group of [[water]]-soluble [[vitamin]]s. Niacin is found in foods such as [[yeast]], [[liver]], [[meat]], [[fish]], [[legume]]s, and whole-grain [[cereal]]s (Carson-DeWitt 2004). | ||
Tryptophan is an [[amino acid]] found in most [[protein]]s. It is classified as an [[amino acid#essential amino acids|"essential amino acid"]] since it cannot be synthesized by the [[human body]] from other compounds through chemical reactions and thus has to be taken in with the diet. Tryptophan is found in soybeans, meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. If one's diet contains these foods, one's need for niacin from other sources will be reduced (Haas 1992). Conversion of tryptophan to niacin is insufficient by itself to fully meet the demands for this vitamin, but it can help forestall pellagra. Lack of tryptophan, however, such as dependence on food of low tryptophan content such as [[maize]], can contribute to this niacin-deficiency disease. | Tryptophan is an [[amino acid]] found in most [[protein]]s. It is classified as an [[amino acid#essential amino acids|"essential amino acid"]] since it cannot be synthesized by the [[human body]] from other compounds through chemical reactions and thus has to be taken in with the diet. Tryptophan is found in soybeans, meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. If one's diet contains these foods, one's need for niacin from other sources will be reduced (Haas 1992). Conversion of tryptophan to niacin is insufficient by itself to fully meet the demands for this vitamin, but it can help forestall pellagra. Lack of tryptophan, however, such as dependence on food of low tryptophan content such as [[maize]], can contribute to this niacin-deficiency disease. | ||
Revision as of 01:57, 15 September 2008
 Pellagra sufferer with skin lesions | |
|---|---|
| ICD-10 | E52 |
| ICD-O: | |
| ICD-9 | 265.2 |
| OMIM | [1] |
| MedlinePlus | 000342 |
| eMedicine | ped/1755 |
| DiseasesDB | 9730 |
Pellagra is a deficiency disease caused by lack of the B complex vitamin niacin (B3, or nicotinic acid), either from a dietary lack of niacin and the essential amino acid tryptophan, or from an inability to properly absorb or metabolize niacin. Because tryptophan can be converted into niacin, foods with tryptophan but without niacin, such as milk, prevent pellagra. However, if dietary tryptophan is diverted into protein production, niacin deficiency may still result.
Pellagra is an endemic disease in Africa, Mexico, Indonesia, and China. In affluent societies, a majority of patients with clinical pellagra are poor, homeless, alcohol dependent, or psychiatric patients who refuse food (Jagielska et al. 2007).
Overview
A vitamin deficiency disease, pellegra generally is brought about by dietary lack of niacin (B3) and protein, especially proteins containing the essential amino acid tryptophan, which can be converted into niacin (Pitche 2005).
However, there are two types of pellagra. Primary pellagra involves a diet extremely deficient in niacin-rich foods or niacin being present in a form that cannot be absorbed. For example, this type of pellagra is common in areas where maize is the dietary staple, because while it contains niacin, it cannot be absorbed unless treated with alkali (as is done in the preparing tortillas) (Carson-DeWitt 2004). Secondary pellagra occurs when there are adequate quantities of niacin in the diet, but other conditions or diseases interfere with its absorption or processing, such as in cases of prolonged diarrhea, cirrhosis of the liver, alcoholism, and with use of the anti-tuberculosis drug isoniazid (Carson-DeWitt 2004). Also Hartnup disease results in disordered absorption of amino acids from the intestine and kidney (Carson-DeWitt 2004).
Niacin is part of the B vitamins or the vitamin B complex, a group of water-soluble vitamins. Niacin is found in foods such as yeast, liver, meat, fish, legumes, and whole-grain cereals (Carson-DeWitt 2004).
Tryptophan is an amino acid found in most proteins. It is classified as an "essential amino acid" since it cannot be synthesized by the human body from other compounds through chemical reactions and thus has to be taken in with the diet. Tryptophan is found in soybeans, meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. If one's diet contains these foods, one's need for niacin from other sources will be reduced (Haas 1992). Conversion of tryptophan to niacin is insufficient by itself to fully meet the demands for this vitamin, but it can help forestall pellagra. Lack of tryptophan, however, such as dependence on food of low tryptophan content such as maize, can contribute to this niacin-deficiency disease.
The relationship between leucine and pellagra is unclear (Bapurao and Krishnaswamy 1978).
Symptoms
The symptoms of pellagra include:
- High sensitivity to sunlight
- Aggression
- Dermatitis, alopecia, oedema
- Smooth, beefy red glossitis
- Red skin lesions
- Insomnia
- Weakness
- Mental confusion
- Ataxia, paralysis of extremities, peripheral neuritis
- Diarrhea
- Eventually dementia
The main results of pellagra can easily be remembered as "the four D's": diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia, and death.[1]
Frostig and Spies (acc. to Cleary and Cleary) described psychological symptoms of pellagra:[2]
The elementary syndrome:
- Psycho-sensory disturbances (impressions as being painful, annoying bright lights, odours intolerance causing nausea and vomiting, dizziness after sudden movements)
- Psycho-motor disturbances (restlessness, tense and a desire to quarrel, increased preparedness for motor action)
- Emotional disturbances
Epidemiology
Pellagra can be common in people who obtain most of their food energy from corn, since untreated corn is a poor source of niacin (vitamin B3). Corn is also a poor source of tryptophan. This disease can be common among people who live in rural South America where corn is a staple. The symptoms usually appear during spring, increase in the summer due to greater sun exposure, and return the following spring. It is one of several diseases of malnutrition common in Africa. It was also endemic in the poorer states of the U.S. South, like Mississippi and Alabama, as well as among the inmates of jails and orphanages, where it was studied by Joseph Goldberger who conducted experiments in the penal colony in Rankin. Alkali treatment of the corn corrects the niacin deficiency, and was a common practice in native American cultures that grew corn. The amino acid deficiency must be balanced by consumption of other sources of protein. It was common amongst prisoners of Soviet labor camps, the infamous Gulag. It can be found in cases of chronic alcoholism.
Prognosis
Untreated, the disease can kill within four or five years.
Pellagra can be treated with niacin (usually as niacinamide). The frequency and amount of niacinamide administered depends on the degree to which the condition has progressed.
History
The traditional food preparation method of corn, nixtamalization, by native New World cultivators who had domesticated corn required treatment of the grain with lime, an alkali. It has now been shown that the lime treatment makes niacin nutritionally available and reduces the chance of developing pellagra. When corn cultivation was adopted worldwide, this preparation method was not accepted because the benefit was not understood. The original cultivators, often heavily dependent on corn, did not suffer from pellagra. Pellagra became common only when corn became a staple that was eaten without the traditional treatment.
Pellagra was first described in Spain in 1735 by Gaspar Casal, who published a first clinical description in his posthumous "Natural and Medical History of the Asturian Principality" (1762). This led to the disease being known as "Asturian leprosy", and it is recognized as the first modern pathological description of a syndrome(1). It was an endemic disease in northern Italy, where it was named "pelle agra" (pelle = skin; agra = rough) by Francesco Frapoli of Milan.[3] Because pellagra outbreaks occurred in regions where maize was a dominant food crop, the belief for centuries was that the maize either carried a toxic substance or was a carrier of disease. It was not until later that the lack of pellagra outbreaks in Mesoamerica, where maize is a major food crop (and is processed), that the idea was considered that the causes of pellagra may be due to factors other than toxins.
In the early 1900s, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in the American South. There were 1,306 reported pellagra deaths in South Carolina during the first ten months of 1915; 100,000 Southerners were affected in 1916. At this time, the scientific community held that pellagra was probably caused by a germ or some unknown toxin in corn.[4] The Spartanburg Pellagra Hospital in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was the nation's first facility dedicated to discovering the cause of pellagra. It was established in 1914 with a special congressional appropriation to the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) and set up primarily for research. In 1915, Joseph Goldberger, assigned to study pellagra by the Surgeon General of the United States, showed that pellagra was linked to diet by inducing the disease in prisoners, using the Spartanburg Pellagra Hospital as his clinic. By 1926, Goldberger established that a balanced diet or a small amount of baker's yeast prevented pellagra. Skepticism nonetheless persisted in the medical community until 1937, when Conrad Elvehjem showed that the vitamin niacin cured pellagra (manifested as black tongue) in dogs. Later studies by Tom Spies, Marion Blankenhorn, and Clark Cooper established that niacin also cured pellagra in humans, for which Time Magazine dubbed them its 1938 Men of the Year in comprehensive science.
In the research conducted between 1900-1950, it was found that the number of cases of women with pellagra was consistently double the number of cases of afflicted men.[5] This is thought to be due to the inhibitory effect of estrogen on the conversion of the amino acid tryptophan to niacin.[6] It is also thought to be due to the differential and unequal access to quality foods within the household. Some researchers of the time gave a few explanations regarding the difference.[7] As primary wage earners, men were given consideration and preference at the dinner table. They also had pocket money to buy food outside the household. Women gave protein quality foods to their children first. Women also would eat after everyone else had a chance to eat. Women also upheld the triad of maize, molasses and fat back pork which combine to contribute to cause pellagra.
Gillman and Gillman related skeletal tissue and pellagra in their research in South African Blacks. They provide some of the best evidence for skeletal manifestations of pellagra and the reaction of bone in malnutrition. They claimed radiological studies of adult pellagrins demonstrated marked osteoporosis. A negative mineral balance in pellagrins was noted which indicated active mobilization and excretion of endogenous mineral substances, and undoubtedly impacted the turnover of bone. Extensive dental caries were present in over half of pellagra patients. In most cases caries were associated with "severe gingival retraction, sepsis, exposure of cementum, and loosening of teeth".[8]
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
[9]Excerpted from Staying Healthy with Nutrition: The Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine Haas, Elson M. 1992. Staying healthy with nutrition: the complete guide to diet and nutritional medicine. Berkeley, Calif: Celestial Arts. ISBN 0890874816.
Other reading
- Stratigos JD, Katsambas A (1977). Pellagra: a still existing disease. Br. J. Dermatol. 96 (1): 99–106.
- Hampl JS, Hampl WS. (1997). Pellagra and the origin of a myth: evidence from European literature and folklore. J Roy Soc Med. 90: 636–639.
- (1916) Reports and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina, Regular Session Commencing January 11, 1916. Annual Report of the State Board of Health (1915-1916). 4.
- Beardsley E (2006). The Spartanburg Pellagra Hospital. In: The South Carolina Encyclopedia. Columbia, S.C: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-598-9.
External links
Malnutrition (Kwashiorkor - Marasmus)
other underconsumption- vitamin Vitamin A deficiency (Bitot's spots), Beriberi, Wernicke's encephalopathy, Pellagra, Ariboflavinosis, Scurvy, Osteomalacia
mineral Iron deficiency, Magnesium deficiency - Chromium deficiency
hyperalimentation (Obesity, Hypervitaminosis A, Hypervitaminosis D)
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- ↑ Hegyi J, Schwartz R, Hegyi V (2004). Pellagra: dermatitis, dementia, and diarrhoea. Int J Dermatol 43 (1): 1–5.
- ↑ Cleary, MJ, Cleary, JP: Anorexia nervosa: a form of subclinical pellagra, Int Clin Nutr Rev, 9:137-143
- ↑ Definition of Pellagra. MedicineNet.com. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
- ↑ Bollet A (1992). Politics and pellagra: the epidemic of pellagra in the U.S. in the early twentieth century. Yale J Biol Med 65 (3): 211–21.
- ↑ Miller DF (1978). Pellagra deaths in the United States. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 31 (4): 558–9.
- ↑ Brenton, Barrett (2000). Pellagra, Sex and Gender: Biocultural Perspectives on Differential Diets and Healths. Nutritional Anthropology 23 (1): 20–24.
- ↑ Carpenter, Kenneth (1981). Pellagra. Stoudsburg, PA: Hutchinson Ross.
- ↑ Gillman, Joseph and Gillman, Theodore (1951). Perspectives in Human Malnutrition: A Contribution to the Biology of Disease from a Clinical and Pathological Study of Chronic Malnutrion and Pellagra in the African. New York, New York: Grune and Stratton.
- ↑ Haas EM. Vitamin B3—Niacin. Excepted from: Staying Healthy with Nutrition: The Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
- ↑ Bapurao S, Krishnaswamy K (1978). Vitamin B6 nutritional status of pellagrins and their leucine tolerance. Am J Clin Nutr 31 (5): 819–24.
- ↑ Jagielska G, Tomaszewicz-Libudzic EC, Brzozowska A (2007). Pellagra: a rare complication of anorexia nervosa. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 16 (7): 417–20.
- ↑ Pitche P (2005). Pellagra. Sante 15 (3): 205–8.
