Kathi Casey, Author, Baby Boomer Health and Wellness Coach, Corporate Wellness Trainer - Kathi's Blog

Another Study Finds Serious Vitamin D Deficiency in Children

Another study published in Pediatric Journal by Boston Children's Hospital finds "astonishing" numbers of teens and young children who have low levels of Vitamin D.  This added to previous studies of this same vitamin deficiency in adults shows an alarming trend.  

This and other studies found that the children with the lowest levels of Vitamin D also were over-weight, had higher blood pressure and high cholesterol.  This makes me think that our nations' children are spending too much time in front of their computers/TV/Wii and not enough outside playing. 

Vitamin D can be found in fortified soy milk or orange juice, oily fish like Alaskan Salmon or sardines, and whole grain cereals.  Our bodies also make Vitamin D when sunlight hits the skin and today's kids don't spend anywhere near the amount of time outside in the sun as we did when I was a teen.  Mom's also make the kids slather on the sun screen before they go out, but really, the best way is to set a timer and call the kids back in after 15 minutes of sun to put sunscreen on.  We all need about 15 - 20 minutes of sunshine a day.

In children, Rickets (a bone disease) is a result of not enough Vitamin D. In addition, Vitamin D helps us prevent infections, diabetes and even some forms of cancer.  Low levels of Vitamin D are also linked with low bone density in adults.

I've talked about this Vitamin Deficiency before and will continue to recommend getting your 15 minutes of sunshine each day and eating more oily fish to everyone I see until this serious health issue is extinct.

The RDA of Vitamin D for children of 400 units a day and for adults, many doctors are now recommending 1,000. 

Get your Vitamin D and plenty of sunshine.

Best of Health,

Kathi