The disease from Antiquity that could come back in force. What is the major risk factor?

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An increasingly common surgical operation could help bring back a disease known since Antiquity that seemed extinct. Two major factors increase the risk for this treatable but potentially fatal disease in the absence of an essential vitamin for the human body.

Scurvy, caused by a chronic lack of vitamin C in the diet, could be making a comeback, based on bariatric surgery known as stomach “shrinking.”

As obesity rates rise globally, bariatric surgery is becoming more common, and this significantly increases the risk of developing scurvy, according to the British publication The Sun.

Another cause that can lead to more cases of scurvy is the rising cost of living and poor nutrition as fruits and vegetables become more expensive.

Other risk factors for scurvy include alcoholism, smoking, eating disorders, low household income, obesity, kidney dialysis, and medications that interfere with vitamin C absorption, such as steroids and those that reduce gastric acid production, known as inhibitors of the proton pump, it says ProTV news.

The disease is also not easy to identify, because it has symptoms with other conditions that are much more common, and symptoms only appear after about 30 days, in which the daily intake of vitamin C is less than 10 mg.

Fatigue, joint and muscle pain, swollen bleeding gums and red spots on the skin that look like irritation are among the symptoms of this disease that doctors thought was long gone.