The National Diet and Nutrition Survey found that nearly a quarter of British adolescents aged 11 to 18 were vitamin D deficient last year, with girls and young women among the most affected groups. Because early indicators like bone and joint pain are easily missed, severe cases can escalate to osteomalacia, tremors, or fainting before clinical intervention occurs. To mitigate these risks, experts are urging the government to evaluate mandatory food fortification policies similar to frameworks established in Canada and Sweden.
Key points
Common symptoms like fatigue and joint aches are frequently overlooked until acute medica…: Common symptoms like fatigue and joint aches are frequently overlooked until acute medical emergencies occur.
Untreated deficiencies risk causing long-term structural harm, including rickets in infan…: Untreated deficiencies risk causing long-term structural harm, including rickets in infants and osteomalacia in adults.
The clinician group ACT NOW Vitamin D is lobbying officials to increase the diagnostic th…: The clinician group ACT NOW Vitamin D is lobbying officials to increase the diagnostic threshold for earlier detection.
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Twenty-three-year-old Saskia Reeves-Priestley was at work when she suddenly collapsed.
"I just felt really dizzy, really nauseous, was having heart palpitations and was really hot," she says.
There had been no prior warning. Saskia, a special educational needs teacher, was a keen goalkeeper who played football four times a week and felt fit and healthy.
She would later be diagnosed as vitamin D-deficient – blood tests showed her levels were "next to nothing".
In the UK, low vitamin rates are increasing in some age groups, external - particularly in girls and young women.
According to data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, last year nearly a quarter of 11- to 18-year-olds were classed as deficient.
Vitamin D can come from our diet, in foods such as oily fish and meat, or supplements.
But most is made by our body when UV light in sunlight hits the skin. Lower levels of sunlight - depending on where in the world you live or the time of year - decrease the body's ability to produce it.
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