In this comprehensive account of the history and treatment of beriberi, Kenneth Carpenter traces the decades of medical and chemical research that solved the puzzle posed by this mysterious disease. Caused by the lack of a minute quantity of the chemical thiamin, or vitamin B1 in the diet, beriberi is characterized by weakness and loss of feeling in the feet and legs, then swelling from fluid retention, and finally heart failure. Western doctors working in Asia after 1870 saw it as the major disease in native armed forces and prisons. It was at first attributed to miasms (poisonous vapors...
In this comprehensive account of the history and treatment of beriberi, Kenneth Carpenter traces the decades of medical and chemical research that sol...
This book offers an intriguing look at the historical context of the repeated controversies during the past 150 years over the relative merits of a high-protein versus a low-protein diet. It puts the protein controversy into a historical perspective that sheds light on the scientific aspects of these questions and their historical development in a way that should be of interest to a wide range of readers in medicine, nutrition, public health, and history of science and medicine.
This book offers an intriguing look at the historical context of the repeated controversies during the past 150 years over the relative merits of a hi...
