Calcium Hunger

Better hope you have good teeth, or the next few days are going to become even more unpleasant for you.

The dwarven medicine is very effective. Ask anyone and they would tell you that. Many of them would also tell you that they would avoid taking said medicine whenever possible. Sounds like a controversy? Well, only if you don't know about the side effects.

Causes

There is a special type of mould often found in the underground caverns. Dwarves know how to gather and process that mould, turning it into a very potent medicine. The necessary techniques are a closely guarded secret, and the medicine is very expensive when bought outside the dwarven realms. When applied, the medicine helps the patient to recover from infections and reduces the fever. However, it also brings about the side effect in the form of Calcium Hunger.

Symptoms

For many patients, the symptoms do not strongly manifest themselves. They may experience an increased urge to consume dairy, or feel a slight weakness in their body. However, those symptoms are much stronger in cases of what is called the true Calcium Hunger. Patients start to feel as if their bones are incapable of supporting their own body. Most of them develop a strong fear of breaking their bones when doing the most trivial of tasks. The urge to consume diary becomes almost unbearable, with many patients going as far as to eat chalk or, in some cases, even limestone.

Treatment

It is generally considered that catering to the patients' needs is the best course of action when dealing with Calcium Hunger. Whenever possible, plenty of dairy products is provided along with the medicine itself, and people are usually told to stay in bed and not move at all if feeling weak. However, in the more severe cases, patients often hurt their teeth and mouth when eating chalk, not to mention going through a few extremely unpleasant days.

Prognosis

Most patients recover from this condition in a few days or, rarely, a few weeks. However, the recovery is considerably slowed down if the patient is unable to restore the shortage of calcium in the body. In some cases, patients were left with long-lasting effects of the condition.

Type

Chemical Compound

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Common

Dwarves

Compared to all other races, dwarves seem to have developed some level of resistance to their medicine's side effect. Dwarves also have strong teeth, allowing them to chew chalk and limestone without too much problem. In fact, many dwarves even make a habit of consuming said rocks on a regular basis, theorised by some scholars to be the reason for their generally tough physique.

Economic effects

Due to the commonplace usage of mould-based medicine in dwarven realms, the Calcium Hunger is also incredibly common there. As a result, they import a lot of dairy products. There are entire villages built around supplying diary to the nearby dwarven settlements.