With little food available, POWs exhibited attitudes of hopelessness and despair as their health declined. POWs suffered from a number of dietary deficiency diseases that caused skin disorders, eye problems and more serious health problems. The single most prevalent and debilitating disease reported by all POWs was beriberi. Two types of beriberi, wet and dry plagued the POWs. Dry beriberi caused first painful feet then the loss of feeling in the feet, partial paralysis in the legs,[1] muscle weakness and then wasting away.[2] Due to the pain in their feet, POWs had a distinctive gait that was nicknamed the beriberi shuffle.[3] Many cases of dry beriberi developed into wet beriberi [4] which had more serious complications. Due to the lack of protein, the kidneys failed to function properly which led to urine retention.[5] As a result, the body retained fluid. The ankles, legs, scrotum and abdomen would swell to enormous sizes.[6] POW doctors relieved much of the swelling by draining the body part with a hypodermic needle. [7] Other serious effects of beriberi were enlargement of the heart, peripheral nerve damage,[8] cardiac arrest [9] and blindness.[10] Recovery was possible by adding meat, fish or thiamin to the diet.[11] Sources of thiamin were rice husks, barley, potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, taro, dried beans and peanuts. Since most all food sources were limited, POW doctors used other methods of combating the disease which included cultivating yeast[12] and extracting thiamin from rice polishings using battery acid.[13] To preserve as much of the nutrients in the rice as possible, POW doctors advised POW cooks to either reserve the cooking water for soup or let the rice absorb the water.[14] Once again, the POW doctors’ resourcefulness saved many POW lives.