Rickets

In the USA, rickets was was once once a major health problem but the addition of vitamin D to milk in the 1930s had virtually eliminated the disease; the government stopped keeping statistics on it. The incidence is rising again. Indications are: (1) 57% of 290 patient admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital in 2001 were low in vitamin D. Not only were persons either housebound or over age 65 experiencing the deficiency, but 42% of the 77 healthy, nonelderly people with an average age of 44 were likewise affected. (2) in the late 1990s, around one in 200,000 children in the state of Georgia was hospitalized with rickets. The government attributes the comeback of childhood rickets to the popularity of milk substitutes like soy that lack certain nutrients; the failure to supplement breast milk with vitamin D; and a lack of childhood exposure to sunlight as parents are keeping children indoors more, leaving them at day-care centers or trying to protect them from skin cancer by using sunblocks and screens for UV light. The resurgence has been seen particularly among children breast-fed by black mothers. (dark-skinned people absorb less sunlight).

Housebound elderly people who get rickets may not be exposed to enough sunlight. Sitting by the window does not help, because windows filter out the part of the ultraviolet light that produces vitamin D in the skin.