Rachitis & Pellagra - Scourges of the Past

Through literature, authors bequeath to us not just ideas but also sights, sounds, tastes and smells from the past. And wonderful heirloom words. My pal Claudette has been vicariously experiencing the flavors and milieu of the Great Depression by reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. She shared this sentence, which sent her to the dictionary more than once:

The granaries were full and the children of the poor grew up rachitic, and the pustules of pellagra swelled on their sides.

Rachitic -- there's a lulu of a word! I wasn't even sure how to pronounce it let alone define it. Thank goodness it's a word consigned for the most part to historical narratives here in the U.S. because it means "related to or having rickets." Rachitis, a Greek word referring to inflammation of the spine, is the medical term for the condition, which entails softening of the bones due to a vitamin D or calcium deficiency, usually as a result of malnutrition. The disease manifests in weak, bowlegged or misshapen limbs. (Rachitic is pronounced "rah-kit-ick" by the way.)

Pustules of pellagra certainly induces a wince; even if you're not sure what pellagra is, anything involving pus can't be pleasant. Pellagra turns out to be the term for a wasting disease associated with niacin (vitamin B3) deficiency, which is characterized by skin roughening and lesions as well as diarrhea and dementia. Sounds lovely, doesn't it?

Diseases associated with malnutrition and carrying archaic sounding monikers like rickets and pellagra seem like historical artifacts in this era and nation of plenty. Yes, there are still people in America who suffer these scourges, some because they're poor, some because they're addicted to drugs or alcohol, some for other reasons. But even among those struggling to make ends meet, such conditions are no longer the norm. In fact, we've traded diseases of dearth for diseases of plenty.

Obesity now looms as America's greatest health threat, sending rates of heart disease and diabetes to alarming levels. Medical professionals no longer refer to "juvenile" and "adult-onset" diabetes. Now it's "type 1" and "type 2" diabetes given that so many teens were developing the adult form, mostly as a result of their weight.

Will future novels that chronicle American society describe obese children laboring to breathe as they cross a schoolyard flanked by unused playground equipment, an abundance of cheap, high-calorie chips, snack cakes, fries, and sugary sodas surrounding them in vending machines, fast-food restaurants and cafeterias? Is it any less a wince-inducing scene?