Vitamin D deficiency: Sun kissed

Add some sunshine to your life to prevent vitamin D deficiency

Too much exposure to the sun can harm your hair and skin but too little of it can lead to a lack of vitamin D in the body. Also known as the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is not only essential for growth but also provides protection against various diseases.

Since all the tissues in our bodies have vitamin D receptors, it explains why all our tissues need vitamin D to function. Vitamin D, which is found in foods such as fatty fish and dairy products, is responsible for sustaining heart muscles, brain cells, fat tissue, regulating genes that control cell growth, immune function and metabolic control. It also helps in bone and tooth development as calcium can only be absorbed into the blood stream with the help of Vitamin D.

According to patient accounts, most girls in southern Punjab are deprived of milk, eggs and poultry, due to fear of precocious puberty or menarche. Boys, on the other hand, are given twice the amount of those products to accelerate growth and make them muscular. This lack of calcium absorption in the body can cause an increase in common bone fractures among young adults, especially girls.

In infants, vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets, body ache, pain, developmental delay, muscle weakness and limb deformity and in adults, it manifests as body and bone pains and aches, weakness and recurrent fractures. It can also lead to breast, prostate and colorectal cancer, asthma and cardiovascular diseases.

While this form of deficiency is common among all ages, it is more likely to occur in pregnant and lactating women, infants and children under five years, senior citizens above 65 years, vegans and vegetarians. People confined indoors or those with a darker skin tone, milk allergies, malabsorption, renal and liver diseases or on drugs such as anticonvulsants, that prevent seizures, also have a higher chance of suffering from a lack of vitamin D. The Pakistan National Nutritional Survey 2011 has revealed alarming vitamin D deficiency levels in the local population. Approximately 69% of pregnant and 67% of non-pregnant women suffer from vitamin D deficiency, and almost 41% of children in the country are vitamin D deficient.

Prevention

Vitamin D production in the human body is inhibited and affected by darker skin tones, obesity, old age, stress, wearing sunscreen, minimal exposure to sunlight and even northern latitude and long winters. Here are a few measures one can take to prevent vitamin D deficiency:

Sun exposure is a vital source of vitamin D, therefore, people with a lighter skin tone should opt for minimal sun exposure, around 15 minutes, and those with a darker skin tone should opt for nearly 40 minutes under the sun. Outdoor activities should be promoted at schools, colleges and universities for this purpose and sunscreens should be avoided.

Eat vitamin D rich foods such as salmon, mackerel, mushrooms, tuna, sardines, milk, beef, egg yolk and cheese.

Visit your local physician to receive Vitamin D in the form of shots or supplements.

Saadia Khan is a pediatric resident from Multan. She tweets @drkhanchc

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, September 14^th, 2014.