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For centuries, sailors on long voyages suffered from bleeding gums and exhaustion until a British ship surgeon proved a simple dietary fix in the 1700s.
Vitamin C deficiency, known as scurvy, is correct — it causes bleeding gums, exhaustion, and other symptoms from a lack of vitamin C, which the body needs to repair tissue but cannot produce on its own, so it must come from food. Citrus fruits are rich in vitamin C, and once British sailors started carrying lime juice on long voyages, scurvy largely disappeared from the Royal Navy — hence 'limeys.'
Rickets comes from a lack of vitamin D, not C, and mainly affects bone development rather than gums and energy; anemia usually comes from low iron, producing fatigue but not the same gum bleeding pattern that made scurvy so recognizable.
James Lind's 1747 shipboard trial is often called one of the earliest controlled clinical experiments in medical history, since he tested several treatments on similarly sick sailors side by side to see which worked.
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