Tiny tim what was wrong with

While this saved them from sunburns see: What Causes Sunburns , it had detrimental effects to other parts of their health. Pertinent here is that UV-B absorption by the skin is key to vitamin D synthesis in humans. So most Londoners only way to get vitamin D was diet.

For the poor, the foods naturally high in vitamin D, like fish, certain fats, liver, milk or eggs, were out-of-reach. Adding insult to injury, children with rickets were more susceptible to respiratory diseases like pneumonia and TB. Thus, Chesney concludes that Tim had both diseases. Your email address will not be published. Reasons to support diagnosis: Peter Jones suggested this diagnosis in the Australian Paediatric Journal in TB was also one of the most prevalent diseases in London in the s, and this form of the disease would have explained Tiny Tim's limp.

Although TB frequently caused death, Jones wanted to be optimistic, which he said is characteristic of Dickens. Jones also mentions the possibility of "pseudocoxalgia or Perthes," another disorder causing hip pain. What the critics say: Tuberculosis was not usually curable in the s.

What it is: A viral disease that affects the nerves and can cause paralysis. Reasons to support diagnosis: Polio was a worldwide epidemic between and the s, and it was often associated with children. The description of Tiny Tim "supported by an iron frame" is reminiscent of the braces worn by those with polio. What the critics say: Polio isn't reversible. Lisa Sanders said there is another possible diagnosis: Lewy body dementia. Lewy body dementia can cause vivid hallucinations, and they often occur early in the disease, she wrote.

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Doctors had had their chance and failed. And we are told that Scrooge believed in the importance of diet to cure disease. The night the ghosts visit, we are told that Scrooge is eating gruel because he suffers from a head cold. Gruel was a common folk remedy of the day for a cold. It is also alkaline forming in the body.

Most likely Scrooge would have suggested a dietary treatment for young Cratchit as well. A second possibility is that Timothy suffered from rickets, which is caused by a vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D is found in milk and can also be absorbed via exposure to sunlight. But London is usually overcast. And Victorian Camden Town where the Cratchits live would have been blanketed by smoke. The evidence against rickets is that it is not usually fatal.

And normally if one family member suffers, others would as well. And although rickets is usually not directly fatal, children weakened by it often succumb to other childhood ailments. Rickets is also easily treatable. Castor oil and cod liver oil, both common remedies of the day, are extremely high in vitamin D. Dickens mentions both positively in his writings. Young Timothy Cratchit should remind us how powerful it is when one person takes the time to really care about another person.

The concern of small business owners about the well-being of their employees or, better yet, friends supporting each other can succeed even where government policy and medical advice have failed.