Pellagra / Asturian leprosy

pestilense:

Perhaps one of the most historically significant diseases, Pellagra is the result of a vitamin deficiency in B3/niacin.

Pellagra is traditionally a problem that arises in human populations that are dependent on corn for food. Pellagra was most prevalent in the American South in the early 1900s with about 250,000 people effected and 7,000 dead from it by 1916. At this time, dietary deficiencies were basically unknown and unstudied. Joseph Goldberger, however, had a hypothesis that it was indeed the traditional southern diet of corn-based foods that was the root of the problem.

In 1915, back when such practices were legal and under the Surgeon General’s sanction, Dr. Goldberger offered prisoners of a southern prison freedom in return for cooperation in his experiment. Eleven healthy men volunteered, and were put on an all-corn diet. Goldberger kept the patients’ housing meticulously clean and regulated, from changing the sheets and clothing everyday to screening in the doors and windows. Three weeks into the diet, seven of the eleven men developed pellagra. The men actually begged to be put back in prison. Dr. Goldberger then supplemented their diets with other vegetables and fruit and the disease cleared up.

Dr. Goldberger’s research was inconclusive, but significantly contributed to awareness of dietary deficiency diseases.

Symptoms of pellagra include neck, glove and stocking patterns of red rashes, ataxia, weakness, mental confusion, light sensitivity, aggression, psycho-motor/sensory disturbances, diarrhea, and dermatitis. If left untreated, pellagra will kill within five years or less.

(Source: Wikipedia)