.png)
Some doctors think that SIDS has to do with a vitamin D deficiency. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)
The BBC in the U.K. has had a recent blitz on stories relating to vitamin D, particularly vitamin D deficiency in children and its potential to cause rickets (with the characteristic weakened, deformed bones prone to fracture). Moreover, some doctors are suspicious that vitamin D deficiency may be an underlying factor in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
A program regarding this problem was aired on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program on Jan. 26 HERE: There are comments from individuals that leave one with the impression that many health professionals are unaware of the issue of vitamin D deficiency in children.
A lawyer who represented parents who were wrongly accused of killing their child tells of how a senior radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital (generally regarding as the U.K.’s best children’s hospital) failed to recognize rickets or the importance of vitamin D. The child was posthumously diagnosed with rickets.
This program features Dr. Marta Cohen (from Sheffield Children’s Hospital), who has discovered vitamin D deficiency in 75 percent of children who had died of SIDS. This does not mean that the vitamin D deficiency caused any of these deaths.
Nevertheless, there are ways in which vitamin D deficiency might cause death, and it’s clearly valid for vitamin D deficiency to be considered in children who appear to have suffered abuse or have died suddenly.
On Jan. 6, the BBC featured pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Jacobs, who is seeing increasing numbers of children with rickets where he works at the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital in the U.K.
Dr. Jacobs makes the point that doctors are often failing to recognize and treat rickets appropriately. Dr. Jacobs is quoted as saying: “There are many other children who have less severe problems—muscle weakness, delay in walking, bone pains—and research indicates that in many parts of the country the majority of children have a low level of vitamin D.
It’s obviously not a good thing that so many children may be suffering from compromised health and possibly lose their lives as a result of vitamin D deficiency. It’s good that this issue is getting mainstream attention and that some dedicated individuals are doing what they can to raise awareness of this issue.
Dr. John Briffa is a London, U.K.-based physician and author with an interest in nutrition and natural medicine. His website is DrBriffa.com.
