Vitamin D deficiency rates are rising among certain age groups in the United Kingdom, particularly girls and young women, raising concerns about the potential long-term health consequences.
According to figures from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, nearly a quarter of people aged 11 to 18 were classified as vitamin D deficient last year. Medical experts and academics have warned that the condition could have serious long-term effects, prompting calls for urgent policy reforms and earlier clinical intervention, reports BBC.
Sudden collapses and hidden symptoms
The impact of vitamin D deficiency became apparent to 23-year-old Saskia Reeves-Priestley when she collapsed at work.
A special educational needs teacher and an active footballer, Saskia played as a goalkeeper four times a week and considered herself fit and healthy. During the incident, she experienced severe dizziness, nausea, heart palpitations and intense heat.
Although her collapse was not directly caused by vitamin D deficiency, subsequent blood tests revealed that her vitamin D levels were “next to nothing”.
A similar incident happened to Amaka, a 21-year-old university student living in Liverpool, who began shaking uncontrollably while preparing dinner at her university house.
She also experienced impaired vision and was taken to an Accident and Emergency (A&E) department by her housemate, where she was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency.
Apart from persistent tiredness, which she had attributed to the demands of work and university, Amaka had experienced no obvious warning signs. She recalled that her mother had previously suffered from low vitamin D levels but had not realised she could also be at risk.
Although her health has improved after taking supplements, she remains worried that the condition could return following the frightening experience.
Causes and risk factors
Vitamin D can be obtained through dietary sources such as oily fish and meat, as well as oral supplements. However, most of the vitamin D required by the body is produced naturally when ultraviolet (UV) rays from sunlight reach the skin.
Limited exposure to sunlight, whether due to geographical location or seasonal changes, reduces the body’s ability to produce the vitamin.
Other factors affecting vitamin D production include clothing that covers much of the body and the use of sunscreen, although both can provide important protection. People with darker skin tones also need stronger sunlight exposure to produce the same amount of vitamin D as those with lighter skin.
Difficulties in diagnosis and long-term health risks
General practitioners in the UK do not routinely offer blood tests to check vitamin D levels. However, supplements may be provided to people who express concerns about being at high risk of deficiency.
In babies and infants, vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets, a disease that affects bone development. In adults, it can lead to osteomalacia, a similar condition that causes bones to soften and weaken.
Often described as “the silent disease”, vitamin D deficiency can be difficult to identify in young people and adults and is frequently missed or misdiagnosed.
Suma Uday, a paediatric endocrinologist campaigning to raise awareness of the condition, said common symptoms include fatigue, joint pain and bone pain.
She warned that the deficiency was “basically silently eating away at the bones, leaving them softened and prone to breaks”.
Experts call for policy reforms
To address the growing problem, Uday has joined clinicians and academics in establishing ACT NOW Vitamin D, a campaign group calling on health authorities to raise the official threshold used to classify vitamin D deficiency.
Campaigners argue that a higher threshold would help identify more affected people, provide a more accurate picture of the scale of the problem and allow earlier treatment.
Uday warned that failing to correct vitamin D deficiency among females during adolescence could create a “lifelong deficit”, which may continue through pregnancy and affect newborn babies.
“If you don’t correct it from the very beginning,” she said, “this is going to affect multiple generations”.
Academic experts have also raised concerns about the situation.
Prof Martin Hewison of the University of Birmingham described it as “shocking”, noting that 100 years after the discovery of vitamin D, “rickets hasn’t gone away”.
He warned that the continued presence of rickets in communities points to a much wider underlying problem of vitamin D deficiency.
Calls for food fortification and winter supplements
Prof Hewison has urged the UK government to consider mandatory food fortification programmes, under which vitamins are added to food during production.
He pointed out that countries such as Canada and Sweden have already introduced mandatory fortification policies. In the UK, however, food fortification remains voluntary, with vitamin D added to selected products, including breakfast cereals and spreads.
As the body’s vitamin D reserves decline significantly during winter, Prof Hewison suggested that regular supplementation may need to become standard practice for vulnerable groups.
Meanwhile, Saskia Reeves-Priestley has started taking vitamin D supplements regularly and has returned to playing football as a goalkeeper.
