Vitamin C Deficiency Symptoms
In case of adults with vitamin C deficiency, the symptoms might develop after few weeks to month of depletion of vitamin C resources. Some of the most popularly occurring symptoms of vitamin C deficiency include sudden weight loss, weakness, lassitude, arthralgias, and vague myalgias developing in the early stages. Scurvy which is a severe vitamin C deficiency disorder causes defects in connective tissues might develop after several months of deficiency. When a patient develops scurvy, he or she suffers from symptoms like coiled hair, follicular hyperkeratosis, and perifollicular hemorrhages in the later stages of deficiency.
Gums might start to swell, get spongy, friable, purple, and they bleed more easily in cases of severe deficiency. Teeth start becoming loose and avulsing eventually with the depletion of vitamin C reserves in the body. There is a possibility of secondary infections to develop and compromise the health of a person due to vitamin C deficiency. Wounds can tear easily and heal poorly and spontaneous hemorrhages can occur particularly in the lower limbs thus leading to bulbar conjunctival hemorrhage. Some other signs and symptoms of vitamin C deficiency includes femoral neuropathy which results due to tearing into femoral sheaths, painful bleeding, and effusions within joints.
Some other symptoms of vitamin C deficiency include:
Bumpy, Rough skin
Vitamin C plays an essential role in the production of collagen, a protein which is present abundantly in connective tissues like joints, hair, skin, blood vessels, and bones. When vitamin C levels are running low, your body develops a skin condition keratosis pilaris. The development of keratosis pilaris can cause bumpy skin on the back of thighs, upper arms, and buttocks due to the accumulation of keratin inside the pores of the skin. Keratosis pilaris mainly occurs due to the deficiency of vitamin C after three to five months of insufficient supply. You can resolve the skin condition with adequate supplementation of vitamin C.