Rickets' comeback alarming

[Guest guest]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040618/HRIC

KETS18/TPHealth/

MONTREAL -- Rickets, a bone-wrenching childhood condition that virtually

disappeared from Canada more than a generation ago, is making an alarming

comeback, warns the Canadian Paediatric Society.

At least 84 children -- a number described as the " tip of the iceberg " --

have been diagnosed in the past two years with rickets, according to data

released yesterday.

Ironically, the upsurge in cases is due principally to two health-promoting

measures: breastfeeding; and sun screen, which interferes with the formation

of vitamin D. Rickets is caused by vitamin D deficiency and breast milk is

rich in many nutrients, but not vitamin D.

That is why it is recommended that all breastfed babies be given a daily

supplement of vitamin D. Breastfeeding mothers should also take a vitamin D

supplement...

Rickets is a serious disease in which children's bones soften and break.

Vitamin D regulates the body's ability to use calcium, which is required for

building bone, and without which the skeleton literally collapses. The first

symptom of rickets is convulsions. Limb pain and broken bones are

commonplace. Left untreated, rickets causes permanent skeletal damage...

The study, released yesterday at the Paediatric Society annual meeting in

Montreal, revealed that rickets is seen principally in dark-skinned

children, particularly black children and aboriginal children who live in

the Far North. Dark skin blocks the absorption of vitamin D from the

ultraviolet rays of the sun. The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that

children in the North take at least 800 IU of vitamin D daily in the winter.

Scriver, a biochemical geneticist at the Montreal Children's

Hospital who treated many children with the condition in the 1960s, said

Canadians cannot afford to be complacent about rickets. " Some of you are

asking: 'Why all the fuss over 84 cases?' Do you want to wait for the flood,

or deal with this today? " he said.

" Don't you dare say: 'It's only 84 cases.' This is entirely preventable.

There shouldn't be a single case, " Dr. Scriver said.

While rickets is the most immediate result of vitamin D deficiency, there is

increasing evidence that it contributes to other serious health conditions,

such as cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. One study suggested that vitamin

D deficiency plays a role in 13 types of cancer and, if everyone consumed

adequate amounts of the vitamin, there would be 3,000 fewer cases of cancer

in Canada annually.

The new research was restricted to children under six years of age, but Dr.

Ward said vitamin D deficiency is a growing problem among adolescents,

particularly those who consume soft drinks instead of milk. (Vitamin D can

also be found in orange juice, wheat products and dark fish, such as

salmon.)

" I'm seeing patients in my bone-health clinic who have subclinical vitamin D

deficiency, " she said. " There is real lack of milk ingestion underlying this

problem. "