August 5th

Basically most kids don't get enough vitamin d everyday, and because of that doctors are seeing more cases of rickets than ever.For some time we've know that over twenty five percent of adults over the age of sixty five don't get nearly enough vitamin d, mainly because they don't get that much sunshine. And vitamin d, as we continue to find out, is very important for everyone's overall health. It's important for strong bones, keeps your blood pressure under control, and you might not realize it---but it also could protect us against diabetes, cancer, colds. On top of that we are finding out that it's important for lifelong heart health. But now it looks like kids are having problems getting enough vitamin d as well. In a new study looking at over six thousand children and young adults from age one to twenty one---sixty one percent of them, well over half of those kids in the study, were found to be vitamin d "insufficient". Researchers blame most of this on children simply not getting enough sun and not drinking enough milk. While they are not saying any of us need to sunbath, including kids, they are recommending that children spend fifteen to twenty minutes in the sun and to take a daily multivitamin that contains 400 IU, international units, especially in our darker winter months.