Long winter causes vitamin D deficiency

Vitamin D deficiency: joints and bones endangered by long winter

05/04/2013

The long winter causes increased bone damage due to vitamin D deficiency. Thus warns the professional association of German nuclear medicine e. V. (BDN) in a recent press release on the negative effects of the extremely sun-poor, long winter. „At present, a striking number of patients with unclear bone or muscle pain are coming to our practices“, explained Dr. med. Detlef Moka, Chairman of the Professional Association of German Nuclear Medicine.

Vitamin D deficiency has long been recognized as a potential cause of bone discomfort, but it tends to endanger infants and adolescents. In adults, however, the symptoms are usually much less common. However, since vitamin D can only be sufficiently absorbed by the body when exposed to sunlight, and the current winter is one of the sunniest since the beginning of the measurements, many adults are currently struggling with vitamin D deficiency, according to the BDN. Especially the elderly, „not enough sunlight during the summer months refuel can“, It is recommended to take vitamin D supplements for the months October to March.

Vitamin D can not be sufficiently absorbed through food
Vitamin D is formed in the body upon contact of human skin with UVB radiation. Although a certain amount of food can be absorbed, but can be „cover at most 20 percent of our daily vitamin D need for food“, stressed Moka. As a food with high vitamin D content are from the BDN chanterelles, mushrooms and, above all „Fish like salmon, mackerel and herring“ listed. Without a sufficient dose of UVB radiation, however, the organism does not get by. „We therefore first alert patients with vitamin D deficiencies to the possibility of taking healthy sunbaths“, explained the chairman of the BDN. Here it is already enough, in the months of March to September two to three times a week for five to 30 minutes face and arms or legs exposed to direct sunlight. Whoever sticks to it „no fear of damage and builds up sufficient vitamin D, even for a sun-poor winter, on“, so Dr. Moka. As an alternative, short visits to modern solariums are also suitable.

Bone pain due to vitamin D deficiency
The nuclear medicine doctors come increasingly in contact with vitamin D deficiency patients, since „Family Physicians Patients who suffer from unclear bone pain, often a nuclear medicine doctor“ send, reports the BDN. Here, for example, should be examined by skeletal scintigraphy, whether it is a pathological bone change. Can the nuclear medicine doctors „no scintigraphically detectable bone changes“ A blood sample will be taken and analyzed in the laboratory, according to the statement of the professional association of German nuclear medicine physicians.

More than a third of patients show vitamin D deficiency
„Due to the blood test, we often come across a pronounced vitamin D deficiency“, explained Dr. Moka. According to the experts, the patients do not generally suffer from rheumatism or inflammatory joint diseases, as initially suspected, but rather from a severe vitamin D deficiency. As a study in the nuclear medicine practice of the BDN chairman in Essen with 2,500 patients showed, „that 35 percent of all German-born patients suffer from vitamin D deficiency.“ Patients with a migrant background are more frequently affected, according to the expert. Here lies the „Share even at 65 percent - probably because they shy away from sunlight through veiling clothes.“

Symptoms of a long, sun-free winter
Objectively, according to the statement of the BDN, a vitamin D deficiency is present, „if less than 25 nanomoles per liter (nmol / l) of vitamin D is measured in the blood.“ A shortfall of this critical value sometimes lead to deficiency symptoms in the whole body. Sleep disorders, chronic fatigue, depression, muscle weakness, cramps, knee pain, back pain, skin irritation (eg itchy itchy rash) and increased susceptibility to viral and bacterial infection are mentioned here by the BDN as possible complaints. According to the BDN, those affected also tend to have broken bones, an overfunction of the parathyroid glands and are increasingly suffering from osteoporosis as well as the painful bone softening osteomalacia.

Treatment of vitamin D deficiency
According to the BDN, vitamin D can be administered in the form of tablets, capsules or oily drops, if the vitamin D requirement can not be eliminated by natural sunlight or a walk into the solarium. In severe deficiencies, the vitamin D reservoir may be replenished by means of a high-dose injection. If the problem is recognized, treatment usually does not cause major discomfort. However, the vitamin D deficit must first be registered. „If unclear bone pain occurs after a long and sunless winter, sufferers and treating physicians should therefore always think about a vitamin D deficiency and have it clarified“, so the hint of the BDN chairman. (Fp)

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Vitamin D: Daylight better than solarium

Image: Maria Lanznaster