Scurvy - Causes of scurvy

Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C in your diet.

Without enough vitamin C, your body can't produce new collagen, which is a type of protein found in many different types of body tissue, including the skin and bones. Without a new supply of collagen, the body's tissue will begin to break down and deteriorate.

For people living in the developed world, even a relatively unhealthy and imbalanced diet should provide an adequate supply of vitamin C. Therefore, for scurvy to develop there are usually other contributing factors, such as:

• dependency on alcohol or drugs
• homelessness
• complex mental health conditions, such as severe depression or schizophrenia
• being elderly and unable to maintain a healthy diet – for example, elderly men who have recently been widowed and have little experience of cooking for themselves can sometimes develop scurvy
• treatments that cause nausea as a side effect, such as chemotherapy, can result in the person losing their appetite
• conditions that affect people's ability to digest food, such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis
• anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which a person becomes very concerned about gaining weight and tries to control it by eating as little as possible
• fad diets
• smoking, which can reduce the amount of vitamin C absorbed by the body
• pregnancy or breastfeeding, as the body needs more vitamin C at these times

In the UK, scurvy in children is relatively rare. It usually occurs through a combination of parents being on a low income and knowing little about nutrition. For example, in 2009 a case of scurvy was reported in a child whose diet only consisted of bread and jam.

However, delayed or unsuccessful weaning of babies and toddlers to solid food can also lead to scurvy if these children are not given the recommended supplementation of vitamins A, C and D from six months of age, or if they are drinking less than 500ml of formula milk.

See vitamins for children for more information about this.