History of vitamin discovery and research

[WiscGuy]

I ran into an interesting history of the discovery of, and subsequent research into, vitamins. The B vitamins section begins about a third of the way down. It's surprising to me how recently this all occurred.

acs.org/content/acs/en/educ...

[wedgewood]

An interesting read - Thank you .

[Technoid]

Great history. I snorted coffee out my nose though in several parts of the B12 section e.g. : "physicians in England had identified the disease pernicious anemia, a disorder that results in too few red blood cells being produced in the body. The disease causes subjects to feel tired and breathless, and it can be lethal."

Apologies for the long termers reading this, feel free to skip.... but yes it can result in anemia but not always and neurological damage (even severe neurological damage) can precede or happen without anemia. "tired and breathless'... mmm sure they're common symptoms but they should at least briefly mention some of the more serious neurological damage that can happen. *grumble*

" The following year, this new compound was tested on a patient who suffered from pernicious anemia, curing her." my response : m.youtube.com/watch?v=xgS4I...(Not working as expected?)

[WiscGuy in reply to Technoid]

Good observations on the medical content. Unfortunately, as you likely know, abstracts of articles reporting on B12 research often contain similar statements, simplistic at best and often simply wrong. Regardless, the dates of the discoveries were interesting to me because discoveries were much more recent than I would have supposed they would be.

[jade_s in reply to WiscGuy]

It also surprises me,... for example we knew much more about physics than we did medicine at the same point in time. Much the same as it is now, really.

[palmier in reply to Technoid]

I suppose in the old days pernicious anemia really "was" (ie defined as) an anemia, because they had no way of recognising non-anemic cases. Later the definition changed when the condition was better understood so that it became defined based on the underlying cause (lack of IF-mediated absorption of b12) rather than certain symptoms.

[WiscGuy in reply to palmier]

I think your description is a reasonable interpretation. However, I would argue that the changes you describe are still in the initial stages of change. Initially, it was a neat package: patients were sick, the problem was easily visible via a simple microscope, treatment was straightforward, and symptoms readily resolved.

But then things started getting murky. It became evident that another population of patients, in addition to patients with hematologic symptoms, existed, and patients comprising that second population had a whole different realm of symptoms, ie, neural symptoms, and evidence of the disorder was not necessarily revealed by laboratory test results, requiring a second method of diagnosis that was a clinical process based on careful observation of symptoms rather than a straightforward reading of lab test results, and the clinical diagnosis was sometimes confirmed by much more frequent injection (as frequent as every other day) and much more intensive (for two or three months) than was ever seen in the population of patients with hematologic symptoms, and positive diagnosis of neural symptoms called for injections as frequently as every other day for as long as two years, and possibly forever, and it was too much for many medical professionals: an entire new population of patients, with an entirely new set of symptoms, requiring an entirely new set of diagnostic procedures, with an entirely new regimen of treatment.

The entire medical community lagged far behind the changes, and has barely begun catching up. That's my impression and I could easily be wrong on some or all of it, and I invite correction.

[bookish]

Thanks for that. It seems 'recent' to me because of the differing treatments in my own family - Great Great Grandmother, raw liver - Great Grandmother, weekly Liverene (sp?) injections - Grandmother, monthly B12 injections - Father and I, unable to get a diagnosis at all!!

[palmier in reply to bookish]

Come to think of it, the original treatment with liver or liver extract must have given more than just b12. Liver is for example also a very good source of folate, so the original treatment was actually b12 with a lot of other vitamins and minerals as well.

[bookish in reply to palmier]

I agree. For some reason my grandmother was told never to take folic acid (or possibly folate) as it would kill her. My aunt and father both remember that, but not whether it was 'never take folic acid because you need folate' or 'don't take folic acid until you've had a few B12 injections' or something else. So I have no idea if they knew more than I expected or less, and now I am having a difficult time to get Dad to take any folate.....

[B12life]

Loved this. Thank you!