Running low on thiamine (a type of B vitamin) could put you at risk for a severe condition called beriberi. Beriberi is rare in the United States, as many foods are rich in thiamine. However, the ...

BERIBERI obviously is not a disappearing disease, but the pattern of incidence has changed. Shöshin beriberi is probably not an uncommon disease in the United States, but the few reports in the ...

Chinese fishing vessels stay at sea for years at a time, forcing their crews to confront severe malnutrition. Americans who eat seafood are implicated too. In 1889, Dr. W.S. Birge of Provincetown ...

Beriberi is a deficiency disease (lack of vitamin B1), commonest among Orientals, who eat polished rice, and Western alcoholics, who eat next to nothing. The Japanese have described an acute form of ...

In Cambodia and other parts of Southeast Asia, infantile beriberi is a public health concern. If not arrested it can be fatal. If a pregnant woman consumes a diet deficient in thiamine, her breast ...

American forces have won the second battle of Bataan. This time the enemy was beriberi, ancient scourge of the Orient’s rice-eating people, which kills hundreds of thousands every year and cripples ...

The discovery of vitamin B1 began with a search for microbes. In the late 1800s, microbes were the hot new idea in medical science: Louis Pasteur had recently linked disease to germs, and doctors were ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I cover the history of science and exploration. In the 1870s, an epidemic struck Indonesia. The disease was familiar to people in ...