Rickets making a comeback in the UK

One of the potential consequences of people spending too much time indoors is lack of exposure to sunlight, leading to vitamin D deficiency, and, quite shockingly in this day and age, rickets.

Rickets was a disease that had almost disappeared in the UK by the 1940's, but the number of cases has risen rapidly over the last 15 years.

Health campaigners say this is evidence that people are not getting enough vitamin D and have voiced concerns that there will also be an increase in related diseases.

Source + brief video

Lack of vitamin D can also be associated with the development of multiple sclerosis, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and even cancer.

Fear of over-exposure to sunlight / UV rays and the consequent overuse of suncream may well be a contributing factor, not to mention the sedentary life-style. Yet more evidence a more 'natural' life-style is what benefits the human body! (Meantime expect health messages promoting a near hysterical fear of sunlight to continue...)

It's kind of hard to video game outside don't you think? Humans have become addicted to digital media.

reply to post by pause4thought


Floride causes rickets, this is the cause. But you will never hear that in mainstream propaganda.

reply to post by TheMindWar


That's an interesting point. A quick search produced results such as:

Key Findings - Fluoride & Rickets:

1) It is well documented - from human clinical trials, animal studies, and research on humans with skeletal fluorosis - that fluoride may cause osteomalacia. When osteomalacia is present during childhood, it is referred to as rickets.

2) An increased prevalence of rickets has been observed among children living in areas with high levels of fluoride in water, including in the USA in the 1930s, and among animals treated with high levels of fluoride...

Excerpts from the Scientific Literature: Fluoride & Rickets

"The findings strongly suggest that children with calcium deficiency rickets reported in the literature should be re-investigated for possible fluoride interactions... This aspect has not been analysed in any of the reports published on calcium deficiency rickets. A greater index of clinical acumen is, therefore, necessary to differentiate calcium disorders in childhood from fluoride and calcium interaction syndromes of bone disease and deformities..."
SOURCE: Teotia M, Teotia SP, Singh KP. (1998). Endemic chronic fluoride toxicity and dietary calcium deficiency interaction syndromes of metabolic bone disease and deformities in India: year 2000. Indian Journal of Pediatrics 65:371-81.

"During our field studies our attention was drawn to the high incidence of bone disease and bony leg deformities with clinical invalidism in children exposed to high intake of endemic fluoride in drinking water. Due to variable and unusual clinical features, these children had often been mistaken for rickets, renal osteodystrophy, osteosclerosis and hereditary osteopathies etc."
SOURCE: Teotia M, Teotia SP, Singh KP. (1998). Endemic chronic fluoride toxicity and dietary calcium deficiency interaction syndromes of metabolic bone disease and deformities in India: year 2000. Indian Journal of Pediatrics 65:371-81.

"Three children demonstrated some features resembling rickets in the form of fraying of metaphyses and apparent widening of the epiphyseal cartilage. These patients also had subperiosteal resorption of phalanges...A rickets-like picture may be a manifestation of the mineralization defects induced by fluoride toxicity..."
SOURCE: Mithal A, et al. (1993). Radiological spectrum of endemic fluorosis: relationship with calcium intake. Skeletal Radiology 22: 257-61...

Source

Also an interesting quote from The Physician's guide to the treatment and follow-up of metabolic diseases:

"Vitamin D should be given for floride rickets..."

Source



reply to post by buster2010


Excessive time spent on video games / computers / TV was very much on my mind when I watched the video.

I tend to be uncomfortable with fluoride as an explanation for an increase in rickets. Partially because fluoridation of water in the UK hasn't increased, as far as I know, so why should the incidence of the disease increase? Also, despite the quotes above from the Fluoride Action Network, my limited reading does not show that taking children off fluoridated drinking water is a part of the treatment for rickets.

There is another point of view on the rickets question. A local paper in the UK, The Blackburn Citizen Rickets in England provides interesting information:

VITAMIN supplements are being introduced in Blackburn with Darwen after 56 cases of rickets have been revealed.

Almost all the 56 cases found between 2003 and 2005 were in Blackburn with Darwen's South Asian community.

Experts said vitamin D, which is unique in being produced primarily by exposure to sunlight, was a relatively common deficiency among Asian immigrants, because of their darker skin, and Islam's requirements for clothing to cover limbs.

Dr Friedman said the problem was linked to cultural factors, not deprivation.

He said: "Once you exclude a number of vary rare cases where there is some other underlying condition, virtually every case is someone from the Asian community.

"It is caused by a combination of skin colouration, diet and dress, not poverty. We don't, for example, find rickets in deprived white communities."

Best Practice Rickets - Best Practice an influential source of medical information provides some of the risk factors for rickets.

inadequate sunlight exposure
Living in latitudes above 40º north or south, or cultural requirements to cover the skin, reduce synthesis of colecalciferol by the skin. Increased sunscreen use has also been implicated.

FHx of rickets
A family history of short stature, orthopaedic abnormalities, poor dentition, alopecia, and parental consanguinity may signify inherited rickets.

calcium deficiency
Inadequate intake of calcium can lead to insufficient bone mineralisation. Breast milk contains limited amounts of calcium, but cows' milk is a richer source. In societies without a tradition of milk-drinking, calcium intake is often

reply to post by charles1952


I recognise an excellent response when I see one. That puts an entirely different light on the matter; one which a public service broadcaster might baulk at revealing.

(The other known contributory factors, presumably, cannot be discounted as posing a risk to human health via vitamin D deficiency, however.)

reply to post by pause4thought

Dear pause4thought,

Thank you for your very kind words. At the risk of sounding like a mutual admiration society, I must say I agree completely with your point, no cause should be ignored. My understanding (reinforced by the OP's video) is that 90% of our Vitamin D comes from sunlight, the rest from food. Get people out of the house, target Public Service Announcements to the key groups, encourage doctors to consider a diagnosis of rickets, look at all the possible solutions.

One problem that I didn't mention is that pregnant women who are short of Vitamin D, because of culture or whatever, pass that lack onto their newborn children. That gets the child off to a bad start that needs correcting quickly. If the cultural or religious practices causing this can't be changed, then I suppose supplements or significant dietary change will be required.

I shouldn't have to say this, but I don't want anyone to suffer from disease.

With respect,
Charles1952

It's all that sunscreen that people are lathering on their kids. Not only do some of the brands have cancer agents in them, but they block out the sun and thus block vitamin D. On the flip side ... less skin cancer ... but still .... people are getting vitamin D short because of sunscreen.

Bet a box of donuts.

reply to post by FlyersFan


This is getting very interesting. I looked into the connection and came up with a wide variety of views, some of them conflicting. Here's a taster:





Then there's this:

The Claim: Sunscreen Prevents Vitamin D Production

Dermatologists routinely talk of the need to wear sunscreen. But the body needs sunlight to produce vitamin D, a crucial nutrient.

So is it possible that wearing sunscreen might interfere with the synthesis of vitamin D?

Yes. Studies have found that by blocking ultraviolet rays, sunscreen limits the vitamin D we produce. But the question is to what extent.

A few studies have concluded that the effect is significant — a reduction as great as tenfold. But more recent, randomized studies that followed people for months and in some cases years suggest that the effect is negligible. While sunscreen does hamper vitamin D production, these studies say, it is not enough to cause a deficiency.

That is in part because most people typically do not apply enough sunscreen to get its full effects, which in turn allows some sunlight through, said Dr. Henry Lim, chairman of dermatology at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a spokesman for the American Academy of Dermatology. And according to the National Institutes of Health, it does not take much sunlight to produce adequate amounts of vitamin D: perhaps as little as 30 minutes of daytime exposure (without sunscreen) twice a week.

Dr. Lim added that rather than cutting back on sunscreen, people concerned about vitamin D should consume more foods rich in vitamin D, like salmon, milk and orange juice.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Sunscreen can reduce vitamin D production, but probably not enough to have a significant effect.

ANAHAD O’CONNOR [email protected]
[email protected]

reply to post by pause4thought


Chemical suncreans lead to cancer and cause vitamin D deficiency, even taking a shower right after being exposed to the sun can wash off the vitamin D that's trying to absorb into your skin.

I take a vitamin D3 supplement daily to prevent disease from lack of sunlight.

reply to post by FlyersFan


I would say sun-screen increases the risk of cancer. Just take a look at the back of a normal sunscreen and just look at all the chemicals in it which half of them are probably toxic. Now add UV rays from the sun you are basically heating these chemicals up and they are being absorbed right into your blood stream through the skin. I think its child abuse to do this to children, a much better alternative would be organic coco nut oil. Coconut oil is extremely good for your skin and is very heat resistant. That's why using it in cooking you can heat it up to a high temprature and the oil won't turn bad. Unlike other oils like olive oil and vegatable oil.

reply to post by RevelationGeneration


Do you have any facts backing that up?


A link to a credible site might help, otherwise its all BS.

reply to post by vogon42


Backing what up? And why would it be BS?

Are u a troll

Originally posted by RevelationGeneration
.........

Chemical suncreans lead to cancer and cause vitamin D deficiency, even taking a shower right after being exposed to the sun can wash off the vitamin D that's trying to absorb into your skin.

I take a vitamin D3 supplement daily to prevent disease from lack of sunlight.....

Do you have any facts to backup your post?

Not a challenge, just a simple question.

reply to post by buster2010


What is it with the curmudgeons on this site?

You blame EVERYTHING on digital media and/or the internet.

Deny Ignorance.

Originally posted by pause4thought
One of the potential consequences of people spending too much time indoors is lack of exposure to sunlight, leading to vitamin D deficiency, and, quite shockingly in this day and age, rickets.

Rickets was a disease that had almost disappeared in the UK by the 1940's, but the number of cases has risen rapidly over the last 15 years.

Health campaigners say this is evidence that people are not getting enough vitamin D and have voiced concerns that there will also be an increase in related diseases.

Source + brief video

Lack of vitamin D can also be associated with the development of multiple sclerosis, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and even cancer.

Fear of over-exposure to sunlight / UV rays and the consequent overuse of suncream may well be a contributing factor, not to mention the sedentary life-style. Yet more evidence a more 'natural' life-style is what benefits the human body! (Meantime expect health messages promoting a near hysterical fear of sunlight to continue...)

the vitamin d council website is one of the bestsites for vitamin d.

1200 research paper plus info for joe average although not for joe brain dead fox news listener.

vitamin d deficiency has resulted in parents WRONGLY being charged for broken bones in babies
as most doctors are ignorant about rickets.



How would you like to be the British pathologist, Dr. Irene Scheimberg? First, she rendered a politically incorrect autopsy report on a couple’s infant, reporting the infant died from vitamin D deficiency, not from child abuse. The state freed the couple only because the baby died, thus making an autopsy possible where Dr. Scheimberg discovered the rickets. If the infant had lived, the state would have taken the infant away, given it formula (with vitamin D) thus destroying the evidence of vitamin D deficiency and jailed the couple for felony child abuse. Only the infant’s death kept the parents out of prison.

Dr. Scheimberg is exceptionally honest, intellectually I mean. After she found vitamin D deficiency in the couple’s infant and exonerated the couple, she realized that she may have missed vitamin D deficiency as the cause of death in 27 other infants that she has autopsied over the last few years. I don’t know if she plans on redoing the autopsies, only to tell 27 grieving couples that their infant died a completely preventable death; a death directly out of the dark ages.

www.vitamindcouncil.org...

i urge you to visit it.

the police are trying to remove everyone who supports the "rickets not abuse" theory from all panels.
with prisons over flowing the police are on a operating clod copper knows best policy...imprisoning distressed parents.

reply to post by nobodysavedme


Yet another outstanding post. Absolutely fascinating.

And that website has enough to keep anyone occupied for hours. I am definitely going to have a good look at some of the articles there.

What is more, you have really opened up an enormous can of worms with the abuse diagnosis issue. It just leaves you speechless.