Cure and Care-Magazine

Vitamin D
Deficiency
Although we live in a land blessed with abundant sunshine,
International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) reveals,
that up to 90 percent of UAE residents suffer from
a vitamin D deficiency. Figures released at the International
Conference on Vitamin D Deficiency, held in March in Abu
Dhabi, showed that 78 per cent of UAE residents are deficient.
Either way, we have one of the highest rates of vitamin D deficiency
in the world.
Vitamin D serves several important functions in the body.
These include:
• Promoting calcium absorption
• Maintaining normal calcium and phosphate levels
• Promoting bone and cell growth
• Reducing inflammation
Reasons:
Part of the reason the numbers are so high in the UAE is because
of traditional clothing due to social norm. Both men and
women, but especially women, are covered from head to toe
and are hesitant to be outside especially during hot weather,
People tend to avoid the sun’s rays and it’s those rays that help
the body produce vitamin D.
Practically everyone in UAE goes out from their air condition
home, into an air conditioned vehicle (some with tinted glass)
and then inside into an air conditioned office or mall. It’s a lifestyle
that is born due to soaring high temperatures in the UAE.
It’s a cultural norm to not spend time in the sun.
Several other factors have also contributed to the rising incidence
of vitamin D deficiency. These include:
• Wearing sunscreen (sunscreen blocks the sun’s ability
to stimulate vitamin D production)
• Not spending enough time outside
• Having darkly pigmented skin, which inhibits absorbtion
of the sun’s rays
• Obesity, which typically raises your vitamin D requirements
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