Cocooned lifestyle robs many of Vitamin D - The Times of India

CHENNAI: Next time you step outdoors slathered with sunscreen, beware you are shutting out a source of vitamin D - sun rays.

Lifestyle changes, including a rise in the use of sunscreen creams, are causing severe shortage of vitamin D, especially in the urban denizens who spend most of their time indoors, say doctors.

"A lot of Indians have started using sunscreen to prevent tanning without realising that it hampers the skin's ability to produce vitamin D," said Major General R K Marwah, consultant, endocrinology, Defence Research and Development Organisation and president of the Indian Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ISBMR).

Ultraviolet -B rays of the sun trigger the production of Vitamin D or the sunshine vitamin in skin, and it is essential for calcium absorption in the body. Doctors say approximately 15 minutes of exposure to sunlight between 9am to 4pm is enough to produce optimum amount of vitamin D. "High levels of pollution in cities also block out certain wavelengths of light and prevent vitamin D production," says Dr Marwah. "Graveyard shifts, travelling in airconditioned vehicles and lack of access to foods rich in vitamin D -- salmon, tuna, mackerel and rare varities of mushrooms -- also cause the deficiency," says Dr Usha Sriram, member of ISBMR and medical director of Medfort Hospitals.

Studies have shown that almost 90% of Indians have vitamin D deficiency. While bone disorders are the primary fallout of the vitamin's deficiency in Произошедшему далее a deficiency in the vitamin may lead to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and even cancer and other auto-immune disorders. The deficiency is especially harmful in pregnant women as they pass on the deficiency to the baby.

In a two-day conference of ISBMR, which ended on Sunday, doctors analysed bone health in India and discussed ways to tackle it. "Fortifying food items such as milk, butter and flour with vitamin D is the only way to provide the hormone artificially to city-dwellers," says Marwah.

Dr Marwah is part of a baseline research involving 1,000 school students from Delhi to study the benefits of vitamin-D-fortified milk and ensure that there is no adverse effect. "Any condition that affects more than 10% of the population is a hazard for public health. But even when so many Indians suffer from this deficiency, the Indian Council of Medical Research has no data on the amount of vitamin D in various food products," says Marwah. He, along with a group of other doctors, is pushing for a policy to ensure compulsory fortification of certain foods. He cites the success of the universal iodination programme in dealing with iodine deficiency.

Fortification is the norm in countries like the US, says Dr Marwah. "Because we have plenty of sunshine, Indian never thought that there was any need to fortify their food. However, change in lifestyles has made this a necessity," he says.