Rickets

Osteitis (1)
Osteomalacia (1)
Osteoporosis (40)
Rickets (15)

Synopsis: 5. medicine & health: 1. diseases: Diseases: Bone and muscular diseases: Bone diseases: Rickets:

Skeletons show rickets struck the Medici familyas the wealthy rulers of Tuscany and patrons of Leonardo Da vinci and Galileo,

A study1 of the skeletons of nine Medici children born in the sixteenth century shows that they had rickets,

Rickets is associated usually with poverty and living in heavily polluted close-built cities where there is little exposure to sunlight.

De Agostini Picture Library/AKGLACK of sun exposure may have contributed to the rickets suffered in early childhood by Medici heir don Filippino,

An examination of the bones, both visually and by X-ray, showed that six of the nine children bore convincing signs of rickets,

The study pinpoints rickets as a cause of his condition. Rickets is prevented easily by eating foods such as eggs and cheese,

and by spending short amounts of time exposed to sunlight, which triggers Vitamin d production. To understand why the Medici children had this avoidable illness,

Even two Medici newborns showed signs of rickets, although they should have received all the Vitamin d they needed before birth from their mothers.

Low-calcium diets can also trigger human diseases such as osteoporosis rickets and colon cancer. Another major health concern arises from the chloride in KCL

Severe deficiency can cause rickets a softening of bones. Yet dietary records of Canadian infants show that at 12 months they are receiving only 11 per cent of their recommended daily allowance of Vitamin d through food such as oily fish fortified dairy products and cereals.

And those of us who got Vitamin d by neither route were increased at risk of a whole host of Vitamin d-related disorders most obvious and most easily recognized being rickets.

The bony deformities of rickets were common a century ago in Europe North america and East asia and were eradicated largely in growing children by use of cod liver oil and in the US by the introduction of Vitamin d fortification of milk in the 1930s.

Fortunately growing children can repair some of the bone deformities of rickets if they are given Vitamin d soon enough.

But repairing rickets while a good and necessary thing to do is not sufficient. It is too late

by the time we recognize the deformities of rickets to ensure maximal protection against the autoimmune diseases (for example) for which susceptibility is determined mainly in the first year of life.

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