The double meaning of vitamins∗

Sogner, Knut

doi:10.1080/03468759708579351

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…On the other hand, adding iodine to table salt would not benefit other interest groups such as the pharmaceutical industry, which did have an interest in vitamin and mineral products. 123 Finally, another aspect may help with understanding why Norwegian authorities did not follow the recommendations from researchers. Although the Norwegian researchers who had brought the international consensus on policy measures home to Norway came from the university and research laboratories in Stavanger, both of which are respected institutions, the researchers did not come from the field of public health or disciplines related to nutrition, as surgery was a clinical medical discipline.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research, knowledge, and policy on goitre and iodine inNorway(1850–2016)

Elvbakken

Meltzer

2021

Centaurus

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Our aim is to shed light on the relationships between research, knowledge, and policy in the case of goitre and the use of iodine as a preventive measure against it in Norway from the 1850s onward. Goitre was previously widespread in certain areas of Norway, but disappeared around 1950. After many decades of silence about goitre and iodine, an expert report in 2016 argued that action should be taken to prevent iodine deficiency. Already in 1927, an international conference on goitre led to the agreement that the best preventive measure against goitre was to fortify table salt with iodine. The conference had Norwegian participants, but Norwegian health authorities did not follow the recommendations from the conference. To understand why new knowledge and recommendations did not result in new policy, we explore the history of Norwegian research on goitre and iodine, and Norwegian contributions to and the inspiration from international research in the field. Furthermore, we analyse the measures for the prevention and curing of goitre that have been implemented by authorities over time. The preventive measures introduced in Norway from the 1930s were very modest and differed from those in other countries. We argue for the importance of analysing the political context to understand the success or failure of advice given by researchers to policymakers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research, knowledge, and policy on goitre and iodine inNorway(1850–2016)

Elvbakken

Meltzer

2021

Centaurus

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“…pharmacists, were proud not to sell medicine (Hamran 2010); the less the better. Others have analyzed the attempt to establish a pharmaceutical industry in Norway, which never came to flourish (Sogner 1997). A corresponding strategy to increase the intake of vitamins failed since it met with a widespread belief in "the natural way": a way of living that relied on a healthy diet instead of consumption of synthetic products.…”

Section: The Science-state Nexus Versus the Science-industry Nexusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Science, Technology, Medicine – and the State: The Science-State Nexus in Scandinavia, 1850–1980

Asdal¹,

Gradmann²

2014

Sci Context

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One of the common characteristics of science, technology, and medicine is their ambition to epistemologically and organizationally move beyond the confines of nation states. In practice, however, they develop differently in countries or regions. Scientists, engineers, and physicians are constrained as well as enabled by national boundaries and specific cultures. The cultural status of such practices in reverse is influenced by a country's history, politics, and the view of the role of science, technology, and medicine in society. It is the relation between a specific region, Scandinavia, and the history of science, technology, and medicine within this region that this issue of Science in Context sets out to explore. But what is this “Scandinavia”? To many, Scandinavia besides being a specific geographical region of three countries (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) with entwined histories and closely related languages is a way of denoting a specific style or movement. “Scandinavian design” is renowned for three interrelated features; minimalism or simplicity, functionalism, and “design to the people” i.e. functional products for the average citizen (Beer 1975; Glambek 1997; Fallan 2012).

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“…Prior to this, researchers studying scurvy, rickets and beriberi did not attribute the cause of these illnesses to a lack of some positive factor. In accounting for this 'delayed discovery,' researchers until now have concentrated on the power of the germ theory in physiology and the power of calorimetry in nutrition studies (Aronson, 1989;Carpenter and Sutherland, 1995;Carter, 1977;Hopkins, 1929;Ihde and Becker, 1971;Kamminga, 1998;Kornberg, 1989;Luyken, 1990;Maltz, 1987;Pietrzik and Dierkes, 1995;Rosenfield, 1997;Sogner, 1997;Weatherall, 1995;Wolf and Carpenter, 1997). There is much explanatory potential here and I will review a moment in the history of the vitamins that attests not only to the power of the germ theory but also to the role of theories of toxins and ferments in preventing the emergence of a vitamin concept.…”

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confidence: 98%

Accessory Food Factors: Understanding the Catalytic Function

Braun

2010

J Hist Biol

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Despite the practical knowledge throughout the nineteenth century that citrus fruit cured scurvy, and that rickets and beriberi were diseases caused by poor diet, it was not until 1901 that animal feeding experiments led one investigator to propose the existence of 'accessory food factors,' a lack of which was determined to be the cause of some illnesses (Hopkins, 1949. In Joseph Needham and E. Baldwin (eds.), Hopkins and Biochemistry, 1861-1947: Papers Concerning Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, O.M., P.R.S., with a Selection of His Addresses and a Bibliography of His Publications. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Ltd). The discovery of vitamins has long been considered as a delayed discovery. This delay has been attributed to the power of the germ theory in physiology at the time. While the germ theory and theories of auto-intoxication certainly played a role in delaying the discovery of vitamins, I argue further that it is important to consider the difference made to physiology by understanding the vitamins' catalytic function. The profound difference made to physiology by the vitamins' catalytic function suggests that a vitamin concept had previously been systematically inaccessible to researchers working within the conceptual framework of Bernardian physiology.

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The double meaning of vitamins∗

Cited by 3 publications

References 2 publications

Research, knowledge, and policy on goitre and iodine inNorway(1850–2016)

Research, knowledge, and policy on goitre and iodine inNorway(1850–2016)

Introduction: Science, Technology, Medicine – and the State: The Science-State Nexus in Scandinavia, 1850–1980

Accessory Food Factors: Understanding the Catalytic Function

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