But in northern Europe, diseases related to vitamin D deficiency, such as rickets, would have become common.
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But is the prevention of severe vitamin D deficiency such as rickets all we need to know?
The panel will also start work on collecting data to make recommendations on screening for vitamin D deficiency.
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He has written to health professionals about the risk of vitamin D deficiency.
Fully half of the 4, 000 to 5, 000 villagers exhibited lead-related illnesses ranging from vitamin D deficiency to neurological problems.
The college is to produce leaflets in a bid to raise awareness of vitamin D deficiency among the profession.
Vitamin D deficiency is common in people with poor diets (including obese people) and in people who are relatively inactive.
People at risk of vitamin D deficiency, including pregnant women and children under five, are already advised to take daily supplements.
Stephen Nussey, professor of Endocrinology at St Georges Hospital in London, explained that rickets is a severe aspect of vitamin D deficiency.
Given our limed knowledge, recommendations on screening and treatment for vitamin D deficiency in reasonably healthy people are neither clear nor final.
He also pointed out that ricketts, a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency, has virtually disappeared in recent years, while Crohn's has soared.
Meanwhile, studies have shown that young athletes in northern European countries such as Britain, Finland and Germany often suffer from vitamin D deficiency.
This is not adequate evidence to show that vitamin D deficiency causes diabetes nor that vitamin D supplementation is a legitimate treatment for diabetes.
Vitamin D deficiency has gained attention recently as a common problem.
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So I would be especially concerned about vitamin D deficiency in young African-American men who have likely spent much of the last few winter months on indoor basketball courts and in indoor classes.
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Growing evidence is suggesting that vitamin D deficiency is more common that previously believed, and that vitamin D may play an important role in many common diseases such as heart disease and cancer.
Lead author Dr Elina Hypponen, from the University College London Institute of Child Health, said the study "highlights the importance of monitoring and treating vitamin D deficiency in people who are overweight or obese".
In the last 10 years, doctors have been seeing more cases of vitamin D deficiency, leading to a debate over the use of food supplements and concern that many medical staff are unaware of the problem.
Not only can this lead to an increased risk of fractures and osteoporosis in general, but vitamin D deficiency has also been cited as a contributor to increased rates of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease among African-Americans.
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Overall, those most at risk for a vitamin-D deficiency were older, female, obese, drank milk less than once a week, and spent more than four hours a day watching TV, playing video games, or working on a computer.
Still, we can try to correlate vitamin D levels with obvious deficiency diseases such as rickets, but the environmental studies that look at other possible effects are problematic.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women in the UK are currently advised to take daily supplements of vitamin D to protect against deficiency, but whether this advice has been successful or not has never previously been studied in Scotland.
Attempts have been made to correlate other disease states with the relative deficiency in vitamin D that is still common in high latitudes.
Vitamin D supplements are recommended for all people at risk of a deficiency, including all pregnant and breastfeeding women, children under five years old, people aged over 65, and people at risk of not getting enough exposure to sunlight.
Vitamin D appears to regulate insulin production in the pancreas, and a deficiency could raise diabetes risk.
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