A latent health threat

Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

Parents have been urged to encourage their children to regularly step away from indoor activities — primarily video games and TV — and go play outside. Parents who do this help their children avoid becoming overweight or even obese.

Now there is another reason for children to go outside. A new study shows that many children and young people under age 21 are lacking in vitamin D, which is also known as the sunshine vitamin.

Sixty-one percent of the 6,000 children and young adults who participated in the study had “insufficient” vitamin D levels and another 9 percent had levels that were even more worrisome, classified as “deficient.”

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who conducted the study, said that from their findings it can be inferred that seven out of 10 children and young adults have vitamin D levels so low that they are at greater risk for health problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease, weak bones and diabetes.

In reporting on the study, The Washington Post quoted one of the researchers, who said the findings are “astounding.”

The researcher, Dr. Michal Melamed, added, “This appears to be another result of our unhealthy lifestyles, including a sedentary society that doesn’t go out in the sun much.”

A lot of vitamin D, which is actually a hormone, is created in the body during exposure to sunshine. Legitimate fears exist about sunshine being unhealthy as long exposures during youth have been linked to skin cancer later in life.

But according to the Mayo Clinic, as little as 10 minutes a day of exposure to sunlight is thought to be enough to prevent vitamin D deficiencies. Other sources of vitamin D are fish, eggs, cod liver oil and fortified milk. The study’s researchers suggested that children choosing sodas over fortified milk could be another reason for vitamin D deficiencies.

The study, published in the current edition of the journal Pediatrics, should be a wake-up call to parents.