IRELAND: One in four people in Dublin are deficient in vitamin D

IRELAND: Researchers have discovered that one in four children in Dublin lack enough vitamin D levels.

According to studies from Trinity College Dublin, one in three youngsters who live in socioeconomically challenged neighborhoods lack the necessary vitamin.

The largest study of its sort to date conducted in Ireland, which was published today in the Journal of Nutritional Science, also revealed that vitamin D deficits are more common in females and children over the age of 12.

“The study shows that vitamin D deficiency is just as prevalent in children as in adults, particularly during the teenage years when new bone mass is acquired. Reduced sun exposure such as more sedentary behaviour or screen time and lower dietary vitamin D intakes are likely to be important factors,” said Dr Kevin McCarroll, consultant physician at St James's Hospital and clinical senior lecturer at Trinity.

90 percent of our maximal bone mass is reached in childhood, and vitamin D is crucial for the quick development of bones at this time.

When the body is exposed to direct sunlight on the skin, vitamin D is produced. From October to March, people in Ireland do not manufacture enough vitamin D, and there are few food sources of naturally occurring vitamin D.

Despite the fact that calcium and bone health go hand in hand, vitamin D is essential for the proper absorption of dietary calcium.

Lack of calcium and vitamin D raises a child's chance of developing rickets, osteoporosis, and bone weakening (osteocalcin).

Lead researcher Helena Scully, Mercer's Glanbia Ireland bone research fellow at the MISA Institute in St James's Hospital, said that choosing foods like milk and cereal products with added vitamin D and taking a supplement (10micrograms or 400units per day), particularly in the winter, can help prevent low vitamin D levels.