Wednesday, August 12, 2009

vitamin D, decreased sun exposure, rickets

I saw an interesting story on the Newshour the other night. A doctor was discussing an increase of cases of rickets in the US recently. Rickets is a disease that is one of those old fashioned diseases, one we don't hear about these days. Its a vitamin D deficiency that causes soft bones in children. And it seems that with parents slathering their children up in sunscreen all the time, and children being indoors less than previous generations, the kids aren't getting enough exposure to sunlight to help them produce vitamin D to have strong bones. And sun exposure is really the only way to get enough vitamin D, diet alone is not adequate. So, I just thought it was interesting. Her recommendation was just for 15-20 minutes a day of sun exposure without sunscreen for healthy bones, and suncreen the rest of the time for long term skin cancer prevention.

just a little food for thought...

1 comment:

Sherry said...

Cheryl, I've seen similar stories regarding this. I even think that there was 'something' written out there about Deena Kastor's battle with not getting enough Vitamin D. Since she is a skin cancer survivor, she was always covered up... low and behold, debilitating stress fractures.

Definitely good food for thought.