Definition. Rickets (in children) and osteomalacia (in adults) are two forms of a metabolic bone disease resulting from vitamin D deficiency. Both cause softening and weakening of bones because of defective or inadequate bone mineralization. Rickets. Copyright Â© Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
The flow from west to east: Disease. In terms of diseases, the Columbian Exchange was a wildly unequal affair, and the Americas got the worst of it. The flow of disease from the Americas eastward into Eurasia and Africa was either trivial or consisted of a single important infection.
The Effects of the Columbian Exchange. It was the year 1492, and a man by the name of Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain where he then landed in the present day Americas, sparking one of the most important events in the world, the Columbian exchange.