[NewsTarget] Vit. D Deficiency & Teenage Girls

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Misty L. Trepke

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Vitamin D deficiency found in alarming percentage of teenage girls

 

http://www.NewsTarget.com/019908.html

 

(NewsTarget) A new study published in the Archives of Disease in

Childhood has found that more than 70 percent of British teenage

girls are deficient in vitamin D -- an essential nutrient for proper

growth and development.

 

Researchers from St. Mary's Hospital for Women and Children in

Manchester studied around 50 15-year-old girls, of which 14 were

white and 37 were non-white. Using blood samples and questionnaires

about diet and sunlight exposure, researchers found that 73 percent

of the girls were deficient in vitamin D.

 

" Vitamin D deficiency during childhood and adolescence might impair

the acquisition of peak bone mass at the end of skeletal growth and

maturation, thereby increasing the risk of osteoporatic fracture

later in life, " the researchers write.

 

Osteoporosis -- which affects more than 75 million people in the

United States, Europe and Japan -- is a costly disease generally

combated with dietary supplements. However, the simplest way to

prevent the disease is to get adequate levels of natural sunlight

exposure, which naturally produces vitamin D in the skin. The

researchers say because 35 percent of an adult's peak bone mass is

built up during puberty, it is essential for teenagers to get enough

vitamin D to support healthy bone growth.

 

The researchers noted that the white girls in the study had higher

levels of vitamin D than non-white girls, likely because of

increased skin exposure and lighter skin pigmentation. Experts

recommend that people with darker skin get more sunlight than light-

skinned people, because it takes longer for dark skin to develop

vitamin D.

 

" This finding is alarming not only because it shows such a high

percentage of teenage girls are deficient in this essential

nutrient, " explained Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate and

holistic nutritionist, " but also because health authorities like the

American Cancer Society continue to scare people away from sunlight

exposure with fear-mongering public service announcements that claim

sunlight may kill you. In reality, sunlight exposure could save

hundreds of millions of people from suffering the well-documented

effects of vitamin D deficiency, which include osteoporosis, cancer,

depression and calcium deficiency. "

 

" Today, we are raising a generation of vitamin D deficient children

and teenagers, " Adams added. " And the future health care costs of

such short-sighted public health policies are incalculable. "

 

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Related book:

The Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D: an exclusive interview

with Dr. Michael Holick

In this interview, Dr. Holick reveals fascinating facts on how

vitamin D is created and used in the human body to ward off chronic

diseases like cancer, osteoporosis, mental disorders and more.

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