Scurvy fever, convulsions, and eventual death are frequently seen. Scurvy, including subclinical scurvy, is caused by a deficiency of dietary vitamin C since humans are unable to metabolically make this chemical. Provided diet contains sufficient vitamin C, the lack of working GULO enzyme has no significance, and in modern Western societies, scurvy is rarely present in adults, although infants and elderly people are affected. Virtually all commercially available baby formulas contain added vitamin C, preventing infantile scurvy. Human breast milk contains sufficient vitamin C, if the mother has an adequate intake. Commercial milk is pasteurized, a heating process that destroys the
Vitamin D deficiency in Australia margarine and milk. Additionally, if you consume vitamin D through your diet, or make vitamin D in your skin from UVB exposure, it is processed through two organs before it becomes activated. Vitamin D is first processed in the liver, before heading to the kidneys where it becomes activated to the form 1-25 dihydroxy vitamin D or alternatively named chemical calcitriol. Vitamin D deficiency historically used to be identified through counting cases of rickets. The old theory was that if someone had enough vitamin D to prevent rickets and osteomalacia, two skeletal disorders, they were considered safe from a deficiency.