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.
A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas. Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian. The Columbian Exchange refers to the exchange of diseases, ideas, food. crops, and populations between the New World and the Old World. following the voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492.