A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study suggests this is a serious, underappreciated problem. Researchers collected vitamin C levels from 2003 and 2004 and found that 6 to 8 percent of the general population had scurvy-level deficiencies, with men on the higher end.
Deficiency rates were greater for low-income people (10–17 percent), and highest among male smokers (18 percent), likely because smoking affects how the body absorbs vitamin C. These numbers were actually an improvement over measures taken a decade earlier.
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