Coping with... VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY

The ‘sunshine’ vitamin is needed for healthy muscles, bones and teeth

- DR.GRILL

Vitamin D helps to regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body, and a lack of vitamin D leads to bone disorders such as rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Rickets is a softening of the growing bone, with pain, poor growth, weakness and deformity, and is still seen in the UK. Osteomalacia is an adult softening of the bones caused by poor mineralisation, with pain and muscle weakness. However, most people don’t get symptoms from mild vitamin D deficiency.