subject: 10 Things You Need to Know About Vitamin D Deficiency [print this page] 10 Things You Need to Know About Vitamin D Deficiency
Just how important is Vitamin D to a person's health? Why do many health experts recommend people to get adequate dose of vitamin D onto their body? How does the lack of vitamin D impact our mind and body?
These are just some of the many pertinent questions many people ask, and yet the same set of questions many people tend to ignore which could result to some serious health dilemma as they age. Addressing vitamin D deficiency is as important as addressing obesity, and in order for any person to address the issue, one needs to have better understanding about the subject. Below are 10 interestingly critical things every person needs to know about vitamin D deficiency:
1. 40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient. Sadly, vitamin D deficiency is regarded as an epidemic in the US, according to Dr. Michael Holick, author of "The UV advantage" and one of the world's most respected authorities on vitamin D and the health benefits of natural sunlight. The data was extracted from his study about the UV advantage, and while this fact is in itself already a huge revelation, from vitamin D deficiency testing even more shocking is that 48% of young Caucasian girls (9-11 years old) are vitamin D deficient at the end of the winter, and 17% remained vitamin D deficient at the end of the summer.
2. Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets. Rickets is a disease characterized by a failure of bone tissue to properly mineralize, resulting in soft bones and skeletal deformities. According to a 2003 report from Memphis, 23 cases of rickets among infants have been recorded, and 20 of whom were African American.
3. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to depression and schizophrenia. Vitamin D helps in the development of the brain and maintenance of mental function, and studies have noted that sufficiency of such during pregnancy plays a vital role in fetal brain maturation.
4. Vitamin D deficiency can cause osteoporosis. Lack of vitamin D can result to reduced calcium absorption, which in turn results to weaker bones. Osteoporosis is an example of a long-term effect of calcium and vitamin D insufficiency.
5. Vitamin D deficiency increases risk of cancer. Laboratory and animal evidence as well as epidemiologic data suggest that vitamin D status could affect cancer risk. Strong biological and mechanistic bases indicate that vitamin D plays a role in the prevention of colon, prostate, and breast cancers.
6. Vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy women impacts newborn's development. Vitamin D deficiency in women during pregnancy and lactation can cause both inadequate body stores in the newborn and in breast milk, which can impair bone growth and mineralization in early infancy and may even cause hypocalcemic convulsions.
7. Vitamin D deficiency can cause insomnia. This is because vitamin D helps metabolizes calcium which is essential for generating the voltage of potentials in neurons, and the lack thereof, can trigger sleeplessness.
8. Vitamin D deficiency in infant can trigger other chronic diseases. Infants that are vitamin D deficient are more at risk of developing many chronic diseases later in life, including type 1 Diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, as well as many of the common cancers of the breast, colon and prostate.
9. Vitamin D deficiency causes muscle pains. This is because vitamin D helps to regulate muscle composition and prevent too much fat accumulation alongside of muscle tissue, and the lack of it triggers muscle pains.
10. 32% of doctors and med school students, 18-29 years of age, are vitamin D deficient.
