05.09.08
Some notes on health and malnutrition
Tomorrow I plan to return all my library loans because I’ll be out of town for a couple weeks. But first, I wanted to take some notes from the books because that’s what I like to do to help me remember things I find of interest. Two of the books I’m referring to at this time are Parade of the Dead by John R. Bumgarner, M.D. and Death March by Donald Knox. There were a couple things I wanted to note, one of them being what kinds of observations were made regarding the effects of malnutrition on the prisoners. Bumgarner wrote that lots of strange and unusual health problems arose from the malnutrition the men were experiencing. Knox’s book corroborates some of the observations by Bumgarner.
Some of the most prevalent diseases caused by lack of food were scurvy, blindness, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and beriberi. While I understand that the eyes need proper nutrients to remain healthy, I never knew that people actually went “blind” from malnutrition. I’ve heard of night blindness due to vit A deficiency, but not outright blindness. One explanation for the blindness experienced by some of the men was lack of vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 deficiency can damage the optic nerve and lead to blindness. I wonder how many of us who have weak vision could improve our vision with improved diet. The Eye Care Revolution by Robert Abel Jr., M.D. writes of preventing and reversing eye diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, etc. through the use of good nutrition. How many of us are suffering eye conditions that are really malnutrition related? I know we have plenty of food to eat, but are we eating the right foods and are we displacing good nutrition with too many highly processed foods which damages much of our nutrient intake? It’s believed by some that pesticides and other chemicals in our foods interfere with our utilization of vitamins such as vit A. I’ve read of some studies that link vit A deficiency to certain types of leukemia.
In Hampton Sides’ book Ghost Soldiers, the men commented on another “strange” health condition that they suffered due to their faulty diet. Some of the men grew breasts. Not just fat looking breasts, but female looking breasts like those of a young girl going through puberty. While there was not explanation given for that phenomenon, my guess is that the malnutrition was disrupting their hormone balance and thus creating unusual developments. Keep in mind these men weren’t growing breasts because they were too fat. These men were starving and many were too skinny. One thing that seems to confirm a hormone imbalance or disruption was that after a while of starvation, the men weren’t interested in women much. All they thought and talked about was food. But after more nourishment, then they would start to wake up with erections again and start thinking of women again.
There were other diseases that were complicated by the malnutrition, but were difficult to avoid just by the fact that they were living in tropical conditions. Such diseases included malaria, dysentery, and parasitic (intestinal) infections.
I’m particularly interested in the symptoms the men experienced due to malnutrition because I’m interested in the correlation of diet and sub-clinical disease symptoms. While severe malnutrition (such as what the prisoners endured) due to lack of food can cause full-blown diseases, I wonder how “slight” malnutrition would affect our health today. For instance, Matthias Rath, M.D., author of The Heart, wrote that vitamin C deficiency is linked to arteriosclerosis. Since arteriosclerosis is so prevalent in our society, Rath believed that most people are borderline vitamin C deficient although it is not commonly believed that our society is suffering from vit C deficiency at all. Since we’re only borderline deficient, we don’t exhibit the full-blown symptoms of scurvy, but as we continue to be chronically slightly vit C deficient symptoms develop slowly and quietly through the years. Now, I do know that many of the prisoners had trouble with their hearts, which very likely was caused by their severe malnutrition. I wonder if part of that was due to lack of vit C. Perhaps I should note that their main diet consisted of polished rice and on some occasions a sprig or two of some local greens. Protein was vary scarce, and one of the symptoms that developed with not enough protein was edema. This makes me wonder about conditions today where there are many people who suffer from edema. In particular, I recall reading of T.C. Fry, the famous “fruitarian.” He became quite sickly before his death, and if I recall correctly, one of the things he suffered from was edema. I think Fry’s longstanding fruitarian diet contributed to his ill health. I wonder if he had just included a little animal protein into his diet from time to time, he would not have suffered edema. Just a thought.
The other thing I found fascinating about the health condition of the prisoners is the incredible addiction to cigarettes. Many men actually traded their food for cigarettes even though they were skin and bones. They were starving to death, but would rather smoke a cigarette than eat food. I’ve heard that drug addicts also forgo food for drugs. I wonder what’s going on in the body that that happens. I wonder how much of it is physical or how much of it is mental?
Skin problems was another symptoms the prisoners would suffer. I can understand that lack of protein and key vitamins and minerals would inhibit proper wound healing, but some of the prisoners were developing skin lesions and boils. A description of the size of boils one prisoner had was about 6 to 8 inches long! Why, I wonder, would these men develop boils? I wonder if it was related to the toxic exposures they were encountering in the mines and factories where they were required to work coupled with the overall malnutrition?
Finally, I learned that there was “wet” beriberi and “dry” beriberi. All this time I thought there was just beriberi. Apparently people present with different symptoms. Basically, the wet beriberi caused the men to take on lots of fluids and swell up to enormous sizes. Sometimes their abdomens would swell up or their testicles, or some other part of their bodies. One man was described to have swelled up to 300 pounds! Amazing to think that someone starving to death could swell up to 300 pounds. . . When these men died, it was said that those moving the bodies had to be extremely careful because if the the corpses were not handled gently, the bodies could actually burst and spew out it’s contents. Dry beriberi was different. The person suffering from dry beriberi didn’t swell up to enormous sizes, but rather they would develop very, very painful feet. So painful in fact that just the touch of a fly landing on their feet would be enough to cause them excruciating pain.
I know there is a bit more about health and malnutrition from these prisoner of war books, but it’s getting late and I’ve got some things to do for now. So will stop here, and if I get a chance and can remember more stuff, I’ll continue with this. The other aspect of what I learned reading these POW books is about human nature. I see men in a different light after reading these books. While it’s true there is so much bad, there is also much good. The good is encouraging to me, and I do want to comment on that at some point. Maybe next post.
Marlakins
