Re: Fw: Pellagra

[<CavKVet50@aol.com>]

Thank you gentlemen for answering my post on K-W-L. And thanks for the 
information. 

Dr. Sidney Estensen, one of the camp doctors in Camp 5, North Korea, during 
the Korean War spoke about a symptom which was referred to "give-up-itis." 
Men who gave up the will to live, curled up in a fetal position and died.

Now somewhere I have seen a reference (but can't find it) as to one of 
effects of pellagra being that it attacks the nervous system and the mind to 
the extent that it could cause someone to give up.

In the 1950s and 1960s several authors wrote books and made tapes in which 
they suggested that the reason that some American POWs died was because they 
were soft and decadent and devoid of any moral reserve that they simply gave 
up and died. I'm sure you've read or heard some of this.

But, I have to believe that there was a more logical explanation, why they 
gave up was because they were very sick people -  the effects of the disease 
pellagra, perhaps working in conjunction with other factors, damaging their 
minds and physical being, was the real medical reason for their deaths. When 
a man is ravaged by disease can will power alone offset the effects of the 
disease? That seems to be the question that needs to be answered. 

I think that "give-up-itis" as sadly used by some Americans to blame the POWs 
for their own misfortunes, is a bad rap in any case. 

Marty