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90% of OFWs vitamin D-deficient

The relatively high temperatures make it less likely for the residents to put more time under the sun, hence leading to a tendency to develop vitamin D deficiency.

DUBAI: The good news is that with the cooler “Ber Months” coming in, summer is on its way out.

Odd as it may seem, the UAE, which has 350 days of sun throughout the year, has around 90% of its population suffering from vitamin D deficiency, officials said.

Odd because we were taught as early as way back in grade school how important being exposed to the sun is to our body’s nourishment. Back home in the Philippines, it has also been common practice for parents and nannies to, on doctors’ advice, bring infants out in the morning sun, especially the jaundiced ones, for at least five to 10 minutes to help boost immune system and make the bones strong.

Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, the building block of human bones; it helps develop bone density. Low bone density can cause the bones to become brittle and fragile, easy to break even without injury and thereby causing mobility issues. Too little vitamin D results in soft bones in children (rickets) and fragile, misshapen bones in adults (osteomalacia). You also need vitamin D for other important body functions.

Vitamin D deficiency has now been linked to breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, depression, weight gain, and other maladies. These studies show that people with higher levels of vitamin D have a lower risk of disease, although they do not definitively prove that lack of vitamin D causes disease — or that vitamin D supplements would lower risk.

Scientists are also finding that vitamin D can slow the growth of abnormal cells. It might also starve tumors by making it difficult for them to sprout new blood vessels, according to a report published by Harvard Medical School.

‘Sunshine vitamin’

“Despite having too much sunlight all year-round in the UAE, vitamin D deficiency is a common health issue for the majority population,” said Dr. Aguida Perez, internal medicine specialist at Klinika Maharlika.

“Why the irony? Most of the people are confined in air-conditioned environments and limit direct skin exposure to the sunlight,” she said.

Dr. Aguida Perez
Dr. Aguida Perez

Dr. Archana Ashtekar, specialist at Bareen International Hospital in Abu Dhabi, adds: “The relatively high temperatures make it less likely for the residents to put more time under the sun, hence leading to a tendency to develop vitamin D deficiency.”

Risk factors

Ashtekar said the risk factors of developing vitamin D deficiency in the Middle East are mainly due to social and environmental reasons.

She said the Abu Dhabi Department of Health has pointed out that Vitamin D deficiency remains to be prevalent in the UAE with over 85% of the population suffering from the condition.

Ashtekar said veiled women pose higher risk of lacking Vitamin D as they constitute 61% of all Vitamin D episodes in emirates.

“They do not expose enough skin to the sun, which would have helped in vitamin D formation,” she said.

Dark-skinned persons are also at risk for developing Vitamin D deficiency because their skin does not produce enough of the vitamin compared to those with fairer skin, Ashtekar said.

Dr Archana Ashtekar
Dr Archana Ashtekar

Moreover, she added, those who follow a strict vegan diet are at risk of not consuming the recommended levels of vitamin D over time. This, she said, because the natural food sources of vitamin D are animal-based such as fish, egg yolks, and beef liver.

Smoking and obesity are important risk factors for vitamin D deficiency as well, Ashtekar said.

In recent media interviews, Dr. Wafa Ayesh, director of the Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) Clinical Nutrition desk, said the food industry has been asked to have more Vitamin D in their milk products over the fact that more than 90% of the country’s 9.54 million people lacks vitamin D.

Her concerns about vitamin D deficiency have repeatedly been aired as well in medical circles, among them the International Osteoporosis Foundation which has pointed to lifestyle as a contributing factor, where people prefer staying indoors, live in tinted windows and airconditioned rooms and rarely go out in the sun.

Cancer

And so ironic as it may sound, your preference to stay out of the sun may actually be doing you more harm than good – increased risk of cancer for one.

Women who lack vitamin D may be at greater risk for the most aggressive breast cancer and expect a poorer prognosis, according to a study from the University of Rochester Medical Center, one of the first to examine vitamin D and breast cancer progression.

Researchers have also found that cancers known to be more aggressive, such as triple-negative tumors, correlated with low vitamin D levels. Triple-negative cancers are often associated with younger women and minority women, said an article about the study as published by Cancer Treatment Centers of America on its webpage.

Another study, presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), showed that more than three-fourths of people with a variety of cancers have low levels of vitamin D, and the lowest levels are associated with more advanced cancers.

Aside from cancers, vitamin D deficiency is a contributing factor to other medical conditions like diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, hypertension and heart disease. It also leads to asthma symptoms and wheezing, as well as depression.

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