Vit D3

Vit D3 & Children

Kids hit hard by little exposure to sunlight

Sumitra Deb Roy | TNN

Mumbai: Kids and young adults in the city are not getting enough exposure to sunlight, resulting in high levels of Vitamin D deficiency, according to a recent study.
The study by PD Hinduja Hospital found that Mumbaikars are shunning even half an hour of exposure to the sun in a day, considered ideal worldwide. Vitamin D is secreted in the body when the skin is sufficiently exposed to sunlight.
Dr Vipla Puri, consultant (radioimmunoassay), at the hospital’s department of lab-medicine said, “The decline in Vitamin D levels indicates that kids have sedentary lifestyles — watching television, playing indoor games or using computers.” She said most children and young adults in the study belonged to the higher socio-economic strata. “Vitamin D deficiency has reached alarming proportions and parents must take steps to alter their kids’ lifestyle if they want to protect them from serious diseases,” said Puri.
Pediatrician Dr Deepak Urga, who consults with Lilavati Hospital, termed Vitamin D deficiency in children as an “alarming problem”. “Children are increasingly getting used to a life without natural light,” he said. Blaming food habits, Ugra said the kind of food children in metros prefer are not rich sources of Vitamin D. “It gets tougher for vegetarians as Vitamin D sources are sparse,” he said.
Studies show it affects the immune system in children. “Vitamin D deficiency causes allergies and respiratory infections in children,” said Ugra. He added most vitamin supplements also fail to provide the quota of anything between 200-1000 IU/ day (international unit).
Physician Dr Pratik Samdani alsoblamed pollution. “Factorslike latitude, atmospheric pollution, duration and time of exposure to sunlight is also important for the skin to absorb and use it,” he said.

Sunscreens and Vit D3

Sunscreens causing vitamin deficiency? Sumitra Deb Roy | TNN Mumbai: The indiscriminate and widespread use of sunscreen lotions to block harsh ultraviolet rays could be compounding the problem of Vitamin D deficiency to a great extent. Some say its repeated use hampers the skin’s ability to absorb the sun’s rays. A professor at the skin department of JJ Hospital said, “Some studies have found that by blocking ultraviolet rays, sunscreen lotions limit the amount of Vitamin D produced in the body. Of course, the extent of reduction is still a subject of debate,” he said. He added that certain studies have pegged the loss at five-fold to 10-fold. Yet, there are also studies and observations based on years of followups that concluded that sunscreens do affect the production of Vitamin D in the body, but not significantly. Physician Dr Pratik Samdani said, “Yes, sunscreens play their own role but it would be unfair to blame the deficiency only on them,” he said.

Vit D3

Publication: The Times Of India Mumbai;

Date: Jun 15, 2012;

Section: Times City;

Page: 7

‘Sunshine’ vitamin vital for health

Sumitra Deb Roy | TNN



Recent studies have rechristened Vitamin D from a mere ‘sunshine’ vitamin to a hormone with significant bearing on bones, heart, kidneys, among other organs. Efforts are now being made to understand the extent of its deficiency in the population and fight it.

Some experts believe Vitamin D deficiency is a pan-Indian phenomenon affecting people from all age-groups and sections of society, reasons for which range from lifestyle, atmospheric pollution, skin pigmentation, clothing to duration and time of exposure to sunlight daily. Endocrinologist Dr Sudhindra Kulkarni, who consults with Fortis Hospital, Mulund, said Vitamin D has been proved to play the role of regulators of cell growth. “Almost all tissues and cells in the body have receptors for it and need it,” he said.

Dr Vipla Puri, consultant (radioimmunoassay), department of Lab-Medicine at PD Hinduja Hospital, said there is epidemiologic evidence now to show Vitamin D is required for more than strong bones. “It plays a role in preventing chronic diseases involving the immune and cardiovascular system later in life,” she said. “More recently it has become a general health indicator because of its associations with major conditions like cancer. Doctors too are becoming more aware and asking for this test,” she said.

Head of the orthopaedic department at Parel’s KEM Hospital Dr Pradeep Bhonsale said Vitamin D deficiency in adults was astonishingly high and more cases are coming to fore given increased awareness. “Over 50% of patients we treat in our hospital have this deficiency. This can also shunt a child’s growth and give rise to bone deformities,” he said. He added Vitamin D deficiency was responsible for unexplained pain in the back and joint pain in children as well as adults.

While global studies have established the importance of Vitamin D as a health parameter, there is little consensus in India on how much is too much or too little for an individual. Pediatrician Dr Deepak Ugra said concentrated Vitamin D supplements provide much less than the requirement of 400 IU/ day. “Calcium tonics available in the market have only about 100ml of Vitamin D components,” he said. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated its Vitamin D guidelines, recommending infants children and teens should take atleast 400 IU per day in supplement form.

Kulkarni said the time of exposure to sunlight is also a subject of debate. “Some studies say 20 minutes is fine while others say it has to be over 45 minutes. On the other hand, exposure to too much sunlight has also been linked to skin cancer so one has to exercise caution,” he said.

Bones from FAT

MEDICAL MAGIC Scientists grow bones from fat in lab Tech Will Pave Way For Repairing Or Replacing Broken Bones With New Ones London: Scientists have succeeded in growing human bone from stem cells in a laboratory, which they claim may eventually pave the way for patients to have broken bones repaired or replaced with new ones grown outside the body. The researchers started with stem cells taken from fat tissue. It took around a month to grow them into sections of fully-formed living human bone up to a couple of inches long. The first trial in patients is on course to be conducted later this year, by an Israeli biotechnology company that has been working with academics on the technology, the Daily Telegraph reported. Professor Avinoam Kadouri, head of the scientific advisory board for Bonus Bio-Group, said: “There is a need for artificial bones for injuries and in operations. We use three dimensional structures to fabricate the bone in the right shape and geometry. “We can grow these bones outside the body and then transplant it to the patient at the right time. By scanning the damaged bone area, the implant should fit perfectly and merge with the surrounding tissue. There are no problems with rejection as the cells come from the patient’s own body,” he added. The technology, which has been developed along with researchers at the Technion Institute of Research in Israel, uses three dimensional scans of the damaged bone to build a gel-like scaffold that matches the shape. Stem cells, known as mesenchymal stem cells, which have the capacity to develop into many other types of cell in the body, are obtained from the patient’s fat using liposuction. These are then grown into living bone on the scaffold inside a “bioreactor”, an automated machine that provides the right conditions to encourage the cells to develop into bone. Already animals have successfully received bone transplants. The scientists were able to insert almost an inch of laboratory-grown human bone into the middle section of a rat’s leg bone. The technique could ultimately allow doctors to replace bones that have been smashed in accidents, fill in defects where bone is missing, or carry out reconstructive plastic surgery. PTI

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