FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
As we head to work in the mornings, sit back at home for dinner with the family or go out on the weekend for a grocery run, ignoring aches and niggles as routine irritants, a vast majority of Indians are unaware that their bones are slowly being eaten away from within. Vitamin D deficiency has reached epidemic proportions in the country. More than 70 per cent of the population is deficient and another 15 per cent has insufficient quantities of the ‘sunshine vitamin’ in their bodies.
This is leading to a host of debilitating problems. Vitamin D deficiency can cause osteoporosis and rickets, apart from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, infections such as tuberculosis and even depression. In extreme cases, the bones become like butter. A bit of pressure could leave a dent, an awkward twist could lead to a fall and even bending forward could snap the spine. But the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency—being low on energy, unaccounted aches and pains, frequent muscle injuries, longer healing time—are so insidious that they are often brushed aside as regular lifestyle problems, and there is no diagnosis until most of the damage has been done.
Vitamin D, which is more a hormone than a vitamin, is the only nutrient that is made in the body. It is essential for bone health and is produced when bare skin is exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet B rays. While vitamin D deficiency is a pandemic across the western world, particularly in Nordic countries that don’t get enough sunshine, what is alarming is that the problem is growing exponentially even in sunny India.
It’s only over the last two decades that Indians have started recording an abysmally low vitamin D status—now reaching 80 per cent across India, according to estimates by the International Osteoporosis Foundation. Though the problem was initially associated with Indian women over 50, even children in the age group of 11 to 15 do not have adequate levels of vitamin D. Doctors and researchers say this primarily comes down to changing lifestyles. Now that we stay indoors or in cars, and get exposed to the sun only when fully clothed, almost no one gets the 10 minutes of direct high sun—on the whole body, between 11 am and 3 pm—needed to produce the vitamin D that is required for good bone health.
In many other countries, where similar lifestyle patterns have reduced exposure to the sun, vitamin D needs are met through fortified food, especially milk, some juices, margarine and breakfast cereals. India, which is slowly waking up to the problem, is currently reviewing a proposal for musculoskeletal diseases to be brought under the National Health Policy of the Union ministry for health. The other big reason for hope is that milk is going to be fortified with vitamin D and A to address malnutrition among the Indian masses. But while these measures may provide some succour, there is no substitute for getting vitamin D directly from the sun.
Our cover story, written by Executive Editor Damayanti Datta, looks at the effects of this overlooked epidemic affecting such large sections of our population. We examine what has led to the problem and what are the measures needed to combat it. As part of her research, Datta got herself tested and found that, like many other urban professionals, she had inadequate, though not deficient, vitamin D quantities in her body. She has been put on a monthly medicine by the doctors.
Though action is needed on various fronts, including raising awareness and government intervention, the solution also lies with us. Good health is the greatest of blessings. Though the grand march of progress has changed our lives dramatically, it is important that we don’t become victims to our lifestyle. So let’s start by getting some sun.