Academic

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Internet Generation At Risk Of Rickets. The condition is linked mainly with ex?

By Glenn Reynolds

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Internet Generation At Risk Of Rickets.

The condition is linked mainly with extreme poverty and the 19th-century Victorian England of Charles Dickens, and can be easily avoided through a balanced diet and exposure to sunlight. But doctors reported this month that cases of the debilitating disease have once again become “disconcertingly common” in Britain.

“Kids tend to stay indoors more these days and play on their computers instead of enjoying the fresh air,” said Simon Pearce, a professor at Newcastle University in northeast England and lead author of a new study on Vitamin D deficiency.

“This means their vitamin D levels are worse than in previous years,” he said in a press release.

Half of all adults in Britain — especially in the north — have Vitamin D deficiency in winter and spring, with one-in-six having severe deficiency. The condition has been linked to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, several kinds of cancer and a soft-bone condition in adults called osteomalacia. While the study focused on Britain, the same trend is likely elsewhere in the industrialised world, the researchers suggested.

Fresh air and sunshine are good for you — your grandmother was right.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on January 22, 2010 (boomark / email).