PELLAGRA

     While I have been working on my family tree, I came across something that puzzled me. A disease called Pellagra. My grandmother on the Beall side died from this in 1924. As I ran across this on some other death certificates, I decided to find out what were the causes.             Definition:
  "Pellagra is a vitamin deficiency disease most commonly caused by a chronic lack of niacin (vitamin B3) in the diet."   I found this disease mostly occurred in women from about 1910 thru 1930. In the early 1900's, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in the American South. There were 1,306 reported pellagra deaths in South Carolina during the first ten months of 1915. At first, the scientific community held that pellagra was probably caused by a germ or some unknown toxin in corn. Primary research was set up to study this disease in prisoners and they determined a certain diet could cause the condition. By 1926, Dr. Goldberger established that a balanced diet or a small amount of brewer's yeast prevented pellagra. It was also determined that women died more often than men due to the fact that men were the breadwinners of the family and were given preference and consideration at the dinner table. They also had pocket money to buy food outside the household. Women often gave protein foods to their children first. The women would eat what was left, and I had a first hand view of this when I first married as my mother-in-law would always cook for her husband and son the choice foods. Even at breakfast, eggs were given to the men first and if any were left, then the children were feed. Women would eat gravy and biscuits with maybe a piece of fatback. And at other meals, meat parts and choice vegetables were given to the men first, and then the children. Often many families lived in one house and ate together, so the men and older boys ate and the children were feed in the kitchen. The women were always left behind.
     Pellagra no longer stalks the nation as it once did. But during the early part of the 20th-century, pellagra, a disease that results from niacin deficiency killed many poor Southerners. Dr Joseph Goldberger discovered the cause of pellagra and stepped on a number of medical toes when his research experiments showed that diet and not germs caused the disease. He also stepped on Southern pride when he linked the poverty of Southern sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and mill workers to the deficient diet that caused pellagra.
     I wish this research had taken place sooner that that era. Then I could have known my grandmother. My dad had to grow up without his mother. How many other children in the South were in this same situation. My dad always told me that his mom died from pellagra, an iodine deficiency, but this was not the case. Since he was from a family of 7 children, then this mother was often last at the table and would probably eat any leftovers. This is hard to fathom in this day and age but we don't know what took place in that era. It was hard for farmers to make a living unless they had children to work the acres. And after this, the depression of the 30's. We are fortunate to have food today, with access to a store to buy the things we need. We don't have to grow anything except for pleasure. Plus, we have plenty of vitamins and minerals that sold over the counter. Thank goodness for the doctors who took the time to discover and find cures for these diseases.