Posted on 07/09/2007 3:14:13 PM PDT by blam
Source: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Date: July 10, 2007
Low Vitamin D Levels May Be Common In Otherwise Healthy Children
Science Daily — Many otherwise healthy children and adolescents have low vitamin D levels, which may put them at risk for bone diseases such as rickets. African American children, children above age nine and with low dietary vitamin D intake were the most likely to have low levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
A study in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition measured blood levels of vitamin D in 382 healthy children between six years and 21 years of age living in the northeastern U.S. Researchers assessed dietary and supplemental vitamin D intake, as well as body mass, and found that more than half of the children had low blood levels of vitamin D. Of the subjects, 55 percent of the children had inadequate vitamin D blood levels and 68 percent overall had low blood levels of the vitamin in the wintertime.
"The best indicator of a person's vitamin D status is the blood level of a vitamin D compound called 25-hydroxyvitamin D," said Babette Zemel, Ph.D., a nutritional anthropologist at Children's Hospital and primary investigator of this study. "Vitamin D deficiency remains an under-recognized problem overall, and is not well studied in children."
Vitamin D is crucial for musculoskeletal health. The primary dietary source of the vitamin is fortified milk, but the best way to increase vitamin D levels is from exposure to sunshine. Severe deficits in vitamin D may lead to muscle weakness, defective bone mineralization and rickets. In addition to musculoskeletal effects, vitamin D is important for immune function, and low blood levels of the vitamin may contribute to diseases such as hypertension, cancer, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. Decreased blood levels of vitamin D have also been linked to obesity.
Further study is needed to determine the appropriate blood levels of vitamin D in children, said Dr. Zemel, who added that a review of the current recommendations for vitamin D intake is needed.
Grants from the National Institutes of Health and several private sources supported this study.
Dr. Zemel's co-authors were Mary B. Leonard, M.D. and Virginia A. Stallings, M.D., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, as well as Francis L. Weng and Justine Shults, also of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Play outside w/out sunscreen (shock!) and drink milk.
Get their little (orfat) asses outside.
Australians have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world for doing just that.
Play video games 24/7 = Pale, anemic, weirdos with ricketts
My physician, who is an M.D. but also an "Integrative Medicine" specialist, insists that constant use of sunscreen in children, many since birth (as our "professionals tell us is necessary to prevent skin cancer") and the elderly who don't get any sunshine, being inside much of the time, has become a serious health risk.
P.S. Scientists around the world have studied thiss issue and the knowledge has been known for years but much squelched in U.S. because cosmetic companies make so many $$$$ selling sunscreens and also because many of our "health professionals" don't avail themselves to this research.
What many people, including "health professionals," fail to recognize is that Vitamin D is necessary to fight cancer, including all forms of skin cancer, and that without it, cancer gets the upper hand.
There are 3 ways to get Vitamin D; (1)at least 30 minimum of direct sunlight per day, 7 days per week (without sunscreen); (2) diets very, very high in cold water fish (people in Norway, Sweden and Denmark are the areas that offer such consistent diets); (3)prescription strength Vitamin D, usually about 50,000 mg.
Prescription Vitamin D is the only one that has the correct form of Vitamin D.
Since when are 21 year olds "children"?
Australians don’t live in the northeast United States and generally aren’t dark skinned (such as many Americans of African descent). With lighter skin, they’d need less exposure than their darker skinned peers to produce sufficient amounts of vitamin D.
Take a one-a-day vitamin, everybody. Especially if you dont drink milk.
I had rickets as a child. For treatment, I ate tablespoonsful of peanut butter. Luckily, I was raised in Texas, where bowlegs are seen as a feature, not a bug.
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