Are most American children deficient in Vitamin D?”
New research suggests that 7 out of 10 children in the US have low levels of vitamin, nudging millions of them toward higher risk of bone disease, high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease. The study was led by Dr Michal L. Melamed, assistant professor of medicine and of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, Bronx, New York, and is published in the 3 August online issue of Pediatrics. Melamed, who has written a lot of scientific papers on the importance of vitamin D, told the media that: “Several small studies had found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in specific populations, but no one had examined this issue nationwide.” For the study, he and his team analyzed data on more than 6,000 children aged from 1 to 21. The data came from the 2001-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) which is considered unique because it combines interviews and physical examinations. The data is a
