Teenage Girls Lacking In Vitamin D

Science Daily ^ | 1-30-2004 | University Of Maine

[blam]

Source: University Of Maine
Date: 2004-01-30

Teenage Girls Lacking In Vitamin D

A University of Maine researcher has found evidence that many girls in Maine are not getting enough vitamin D, either from their diets or sun exposure. Lack of the critical nutrient could lead to health risks later in life, especially for osteoporosis. Vitamin D is necessary for the growth of healthy bones and may be critical in other bodily processes as well.

What's Related Lack Of Sun Poses Danger In Our Twilight Years

Over the last three years, Susan Sullivan of the Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition has monitored sun exposure, diet and blood levels of vitamin D in 23 girls from ages 10 to 13 years old. All of her subjects live in the Bangor, Maine area. She conducted the study with Dr. Cliff Rosen of the Maine Center for Osteoporosis Research and Education, St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor. In her research and previous experience as a clinical dietitian at Massachusetts General Hospital, Sullivan has focused on the medical consequences of dietary habits. For her 1995 doctoral degree at Boston University, she studied the relationship between fat intake and blood cholesterol levels in kidney transplant recipients.

Vitamin D is an emerging area of medical research, says Sullivan. Medical scientists have yet to understand the whole story about vitamin D and the body. "We've known for a long time that vitamin D has a role in getting calcium into bones. Researchers are now finding evidence that vitamin D could play other roles in health such as cancer prevention and controlling blood pressure. There are vitamin D receptors in lots of tissues in the body that aren't related to bone," she explains.

The largest single source of vitamin D is the skin, which makes the nutrient when it is exposed to sunlight. Diet plays a less important role but, for people at high northern latitudes, helps to supplement the body's vitamin D store during the winter months when sunlight is less intense.

Since having adequate levels of vitamin D supports bone growth, Sullivan monitored bone density in her subjects. She confirmed that as they go through puberty, girls rapidly add calcium to their bones. "Puberty is a very critical time when up to half of a person's adult bone mass is being deposited. If you think about life span, peak bone mass occurs at about the age of 30. This is such an important time when girls are growing their bones."

Sullivan's results were presented in 2003 at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. Almost half of the Bangor area girls in her study had insufficient levels of vitamin D in their blood in March, a time of the year when the nutrient usually falls to its lowest level over the course of the year. In September, when the nutrient is usually at its highest level, 17 percent also fell below the standard, currently 20 nanograms per milliliter of blood.

As scientists uncover more details about the role that vitamin D plays in the body, they have begun to suggest that the standard be raised to about 30 nanograms per milliliter, Sullivan adds. "How much vitamin D is necessary for optimal health? We don't really know. There's a real need for more research on that question," she adds.

To generate vitamin D, Sullivan and other nutritionists recommend getting five to ten minutes of sun exposure between roughly 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily in the summer. Sunscreen lotions should be used after the first five or ten minutes. Vitamin D fortified foods such as milk, some varieties of orange juice, yogurt, margarine and cereals are helpful. Fatty fish such as salmon also provide a vitamin D boost. Eating three servings per day of dairy products fortified with vitamin D will provide both the vitamin D and calcium to build strong bones. "People who practice sun avoidance, who never go out in the sun without covering up completely, run a real risk of insufficient vitamin D levels," Sullivan adds. Sullivan has received support for her study from the Maine Dairy and Nutrition Council. Dr. Michael F. Holick of the Boston University School of Medicine also contributed to the study by conducting laboratory analyses and assisting with the interpretation of the data.

[Fitzcarraldo]

They definitely need to replace what they produce ;^).

[janette]

OK, that's correct.In very early human history it was all about survival. And mating is the main reason for us humans to be still here :-). Evolution is all about who and what is the best, and the best will go on.

[Redcloak]

Another case in point would be the appearance of Asians. When I was a boy, it was taught that they developed narrower eyes to protect their vision as they crossed the Gobi desert into China. Geneticists now know that the genes giving them their distinctive appearance developed after they'd reached what's now China. (Only ~14,000 years ago) Thus the gene didn't spread as a result of environmental pressure, but rather because of aesthetics. (Also, IIRC, the Gobi desert wasn't a desert when their ancestors would have crossed!)

[djf]

That's what happens. The anti-sun nazis went on their rampage years back, convinced everyone to use SPF 2000 sunblock, and now we have all these old ladies who, if they bump into the door on their way out, shatter their hip into talcum powder.

I'm at the point where I don't believe a single thing the medical establishment says. It's just hoopla and fad, science has been thrown by the wayside. Literally tens of thousands have passed because they fell into the low-fat high carb food pyramid. How many believe the RDA is a good number?

[Texaggie79]

Wasn't there an article about a certain healthy "snack" that girls could eat?

[redhead]

"We got cod liver oil every other day during Minnesota winters. Rich in Vitamin D. It's the Norwegian panacea."

Exactly. I remember getting a spoonful of it every day as a child in Alaska. Kack. I MUCH prefer the capsules, naturally.

[aruanan]

Teenage Girls Lacking In Vitamin D

Here's why: They stay indoors too much. They don't take vitamins. And they're afraid to drink milk because of the brainwashing they get at school from vegetarians.

On a related note, in a review of a local restaurant that appeared in the U. of Chicago student newspaper The Maroon, one of the student reviewers said that the "vegetarian quesadillas were scrumptious. Since becoming vegetarian, I have had the following problem: everything tastes like vegetables." How could such a one not be as deficient in vitamin D as she is in intelligence?

I've read that it was lack of vitamin D that caused Europeans to turn white, thousands of years ago.

From a nutritional biological (let alone genetic) standpoint, this is really unlikely. You'd have a better argument proposing that the weaker sunlight of the northern climes could more easily convert sterols in the skin into vitamin D precursors in lighter rather than in darker skin, thus conferring on lighter-skinned people in these regions a selection advantage over darker-skinned people.

[blam]

"When I was a boy, it was taught that they developed narrower eyes to protect their vision as they crossed the Gobi desert into China. "

The distinctiness of the Chinese are a mystery to me. However, I do know that as recent as 2,000 years ago, all the people to the north and east of the Gogi Desert were Caucasians. The Great Wall of China was built to keep out these Caucasian people with names like, Xiongnu, Saka, Yuezhi, Sogdian and many others. There are many poems lamenting the green eyes of the Han Emperors.

The Curse Of The Red-Headed Mummy

[varon]

Wasn't there an article about a certain healthy "snack" that girls could eat?

I think I recall something on that order also. Included some well known names like Clinton and Lewinsky, quite a lot of press if I recall ;-)

[blam]

"Please, tell me more."

You probably have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that affects your mood in the winter time. A solution is here

I used to take my Christmas vacation to Kozumel partly for the the sun in the winter.

[PianoMan]

Sorry, I've been running around.

I'll freepmail you tonight after 5 EST.

[EggsAckley]

Cool!

[Cronos]

Thus the gene didn't spread as a result of environmental pressure, but rather because of aesthetics

Interesting. But you're wrong when you say: Another case in point would be the appearance of Asians

Arabs, Persians, Russians and Indians don't have narrow eyes (but then they aren't Mongoloid, all are Caucasians).

Could it be that the Mongoloid group were the first to move out of Africa (some may have stayed behind as Bushmen -- pure conjecture here), then had a few millenia in which they developed so forming a separate race, while the CAucasians came next and they evolved separately while those who remained behind evolved separately again to become Afroid --- the Afroids would have been separated from the others by the Sahara -- I think the Egyptians were Caucasian, while the Mongoloids would have been separated by Siberia and the Gobi and the Himalayas.

[Cronos]

I do know that as recent as 2,000 years ago, all the people to the north and east of the Gogi Desert were Caucasians

These were the Yueh-something known as the Kushans. They were an Aryan group that moved out of western-Indian/Persia and split from the group that headed west into Europe. When the Chinese Empire expanded, these were forced (indirectly by the Turkic Huns) to the South (they formed the Kushan dynasty in India in the centuries aroudn the birth of Christ) and WEst (Slavics?)

[Ladysmith]

Hear, here! With you on that one!

Ping-a-ling Nov3: Your input is requested! :o)

[blam]

"These were the Yueh-something known as the Kushans. "

Those were the Yuezhi. There were two groups, the Greater and Lesser Yuezhi. The Greater Yuezhi formed an alliance with the Han and the Lesser Yuezhi were forced back to the northeast. It was not until around 100-200BC that any 'Asian' skeletons began to show up anywhere east of the Jade Gate of the Great Wall of China at Dunhuang.

Then there were the fiercest fighters of all, the Xiongnu who prompted the building of The Great Wall. I believe the Xiongnu were related to the Schythians.

[Redcloak]

The mutation that causes the stereotypical Mongoloid appearance is a relatively recent one. It's only about 14,000 years old and originated in present day China. The original Asian population at that time probably looked more like the Ainu of Northern Japan. The American Indian groups who arrived in the earliest migrations to the New World also look like the original Asian population. (More recent arrivals, like the Inuit or the Navajo, left Asia after the emergence of the mutation and thus share a similar appearance.)

[tracer]

"Time for a Congressional panel...."

Indeed. A solar panel, perhaps..... 8~)

[tracer]

The highest standards of "good science" dictate that experiments involving the exposure of teen-aged girls to sunlight be extensively documented.

There, I said it...... *~]

[Cronos]

Again, the Asian term is wrong. Preferably use the term Oriental. I've also decided to stop using the terms Asia and Europe in favour of saying the Eurasian landmass. the entire swathe of land from Ireland to India (and through India to South East Asia) and including Africa north of the Sahara have always been ONE large chequerboard. The Orientals were separated by Siberia and the Gobi and hte Himalayas and the Negroids by the Sahara.
The Indo-Europeans seem to have been a group that emanated out of Northern India/Persia. Why? Because the Egyptians even in the time of the Pyramid builders did not have wheels. On the other hand, the Harappans seem to have invented the wheel and this moved to Sumeria. The aryans were known as charioteers, so they must have emanated out of India with their wheels and spread this technology to Sumeria and then established an Empire in Anatolia. The wheel then came into use in Egypt.