The findings of the latest nationwide study on vitamin D level brings more evidence that children as well as adults are lacking this important nutrient with vitamin D intake at a shockingly low level.
The numbers of adults without enough vitamin D made news a year ago, but experts like Dr. Michal L. Melamed of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine suspect the slide has been going on for more than two decades.
So it isn’t that researchers are surprised by the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in our children, it’s the sheer magnitude of the problem that is the troubling piece of news.
“Several small studies had found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in specific populations of children, but no one had examined this issue nationwide,” explains study leader Melamed.
Where once in this country bone diseases like rickets, a result of too little vitamin D, were nearly extinct, physicians have diagnosed over 150 new cases of the disease in Philadelphia in 2008, up from zero only three years before.
The researchers believe the reasons for the low levels of vitamin D in children are poor diet and lack of time spent outside in the sun, which makes sense if you consider the lifestyle of most kids today.
Still this nutrient is important for helping the body to metabolize calcium, as well as being involved with immune function, cell proliferation, heart health, even offering protection against diseases like diabetes and cancers like colon, breast and ovarian.
The research involved analyzing over 6,000 subjects, ages 1 to 21 who had supplied data to the Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2004.
The team found that 9% (7.6 million kids nationwide) were vitamin D deficient. Another 61% (50.8 million across the U.S.) were vitamin D insufficient. Low levels were common in girls, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, obese kids or those who drank milk less than one time a week.
Kids who spent more than 4 hours a day watching TV, using a computer or playing video games were also more likely to lack vitamin D.
The situation is complicated by the fact that vitamin D isn’t naturally a part of many foods. Fish like salmon, tuna, sardines and mackerel as well as cod liver oils are the best sources – though hardly popular favorites.
Beef liver, cheese and egg yolks have a small amount, as do some mushrooms. Fortified foods give us most of the vitamin D we need. Milk, ready to eat breakfast cereals, some brands of orange juice, yogurt or margarine are products allowed to add vitamin D.
Recommendations adopted in 2008 by the American Academy of Pediatrics call for infants, children and teens to take in 400 IU of vitamin D each day in a supplement form.
There are many experts who suggest both children and adults get at least 1,000 IU per day. In the study, children who took a vitamin D supplement were less likely to be deficient, but only a small percentage (4%) of the total study participants were using supplements at the time.
The good news for those of us who want to get more vitamin D is that our own bodies make this vitamin naturally. All you have to do is spend time in the sun, though this ability varies greatly depending on your skin color (lighter skin processes vitamin D more efficiently) and where you’re located on the globe (northern latitudes aren’t as good for vitamin making).
As we age our bodies aren’t able to make vitamin D from sunlight as well as they used to, so older people are just as likely to need supplements as the young.
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Startlingly Low Vitamin D Levels Continued…
And while concern over skin cancer is warranted, and should keep you out of the sun, unprotected, during peak hours; you can still get natural sunlight safely.
Enjoy sunlight during the early morning hours, or later in the afternoon. Remember that covering your skin in sunscreen blocks UVB rays, the precise rays the body uses to change a form of cholesterol in your skin into vitamin D.
If you’re concerned about your child’s (or your own) vitamin D levels, there are tests that can be done to screen for a special form of the vitamin known as 25-hydroxy vitamin D so that you know where you stand. Getting kids to spend more time outside in the fresh air and sunshine is a recommendation of the research that might just help increase vitamin D intake the natural way.
