Veel kinderen hebben lage bloedwaarden vitamine D*
Uit een Amerikaanse studie onder ruim 6.000 kinderen blijkt dat bijna 70% te lage bloedwaarden vitamine D heeft. 9% van de kinderen had een flink tekort (< 15ng/ml) en 61% had een matig tekort (< 30 ng/ml). De laagste waarden werden gemeten bij de oudere kinderen, de meisjes, zij met donker gekleurde huid, zij met overgewicht en zij die veel tv keken en computerspelletjes deden. Verder bleken lage bloedwaarden vitamine D gerelateerd te zijn met minder botdichtheid, hogere bloeddruk, minder calcium in het bloed en lagere waarden goed cholesterol (HDL).
Millions
Of U.S. Children Low In Vitamin D
Seven
out of ten U.S. children have low levels of vitamin D, raising their risk of
bone and heart disease, according to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The striking findings suggest that
vitamin D deficiency could place millions of children at risk for high blood
pressure and other risk factors for heart disease.
The study, "Prevalence and Associations of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Deficiency
in Children and Adolescents in the United States: Results from NHANES
2001-2004," was published in the online edition of Pediatrics.
"Several small studies had found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency
in specific populations, but no one had examined this issue nationwide,"
says study leader Michal L. Melamed, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and
of epidemiology & population health at Einstein. Dr. Melamed has published
extensively on the importance of vitamin D.
The researchers analyzed data on more than 6,000 children, ages one to 21,
collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
2001-2004. They found that 9 percent of the study sample, equivalent to 7.6
million children across the U.S., was vitamin D deficient (defined as less than
15 ng/mL of blood), while another 61 percent, or 50.8 million, was vitamin D
insufficient (15 to 29 ng/mL). Low vitamin D levels were especially common in
children who were older, female, African-American, Mexican-American, obese,
drank milk less than once a week, or spent more than four hours a day watching
TV, playing videogames, or using computers.
The researchers also found that low levels of vitamin D deficiency were
associated with poor bone health, higher systolic blood pressure, and lower
calcium levels and HDL (good) cholesterol levels, which are key risk factors for
heart disease.
"We expected the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency would be high, but the
magnitude of the problem nationwide was shocking," says lead author Juhi
Kumar, M.D., M.P.H., a fellow in pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Montefiore
Medical Center, The University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for Albert
Einstein College of Medicine.
The authors recommend that pediatricians should routinely screen high-risk
children for vitamin D deficiency, and that parents should ensure that their
kids get adequate amounts of the vitamin through a combination of diet,
supplements, and exposure to sunlight.
As for parents, says Dr. Melamed, "It would good for them to turn off the
TV and send their kids outside. Just 15 to 20 minutes a day should be enough.
And unless they burn easily, don't put sunscreen on them until they've been out
in the sun for 10 minutes, so they get the good stuff but not sun damage."
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is one of the nation's
premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. It
is home to 2,775 faculty members who received more than $130 million in support
from the NIH for major research in 2008.
Source: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
(Oktober
2009)
