{"id":467,"date":"2019-01-24T15:43:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T15:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/news\/osteoporosis-and-vitamin-d\/"},"modified":"2020-02-20T12:46:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T12:46:39","slug":"osteoporosis-vitamin-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/bones-and-joints\/osteoporosis-vitamin-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Osteoporosis and Vitamin D"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"156\" height=\"156\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-984\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/01\/07211743\/moira-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/01\/07211743\/moira-1.jpg 156w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/01\/07211743\/moira-1-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 156px) 100vw, 156px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\"><strong>Professor Moira O\u2019Brien<\/strong><br \/><\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">President, Irish Osteoporosis Society<\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Osteoporosis is a disease which causes the insides of a person\u2019s bones to become fragile and break very easily. Vitamin D is essential.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>Osteoporosis is the \u201csilent disease\u201d, but the effects are not silent. Osteoporosis is a major Public Health Hazard with a high death rate for those undiagnosed. Treating bones cost \u20ac500mil+ in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Osteoporosis is preventable and treatable in the majority of people. But only 15% or people are diagnosed, leaving 280,000 undiagnosed. Osteopenia is the early stages of Osteoporosis, however more people break bones in this range than with Osteoporosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>50% of women and 25% of men over 50 have Osteoporosis. It affects all age groups, including children and pregnant women. This illustrates why it&#8217;s essential that parents ensure their children have a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishosteoporosis.ie\/the-importance-of-vitamin-d\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" diet rich in calcium and vitamin D (opens in a new tab)\"> diet rich in calcium and vitamin D<\/a>, along with being physically active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Low vitamin D levels cause major problems<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a major problem worldwide of low levels of Vitamin D, particularly in postmenopausal women. For example, in Ireland 74% of adults and 88% of children take under half of the recommended daily amounts of vitamin D. Vitamin D is not only essential for bone health, but is also important for muscle function and balance. A deficiency of Vitamin D can cause rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, Ireland does not have the weather for people to get their vitamin D from the sun throughout the year. It is essential for the absorption of calcium, so this causes a problem. Milk supplemented by Vitamin D, fortified yogurts and oily fish are very easy ways to get your daily amounts. A 200ml glass of fortified milk contains approximately 40 per cent of your daily recommended Vitamin D (5ug) and a litre of fortified milk contains the daily amount of Vitamin D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Osteopenia and osteoporosis are wisepread issues and we must continue to raise awarenes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>A growing number of human metabolic, epidemiologic, and animal studies are indicating that low levels of Vitamin D, appear to be linked to the following conditions: Breast, colon and prostate cancer, Type 1 Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis, but further research is required to prove and understand these links. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Low levels of vitamin D in a person can mimic the aches and pains of fibromyalgia. There is an association between TB or Fibriomyalgia and a lack of vitamin D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In more extreme cases, a lack of absorption of Vitamin D may occur in gastrointestinal disorders such as Coeliac Disease (gluten sensitivity), Crohn\u2019s disease or Ulcerative Colitis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The numerous causes of bone loss<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It is important to note that many people who get the blood test for Coeliac disease are negative. A person can be gluten sensitive, but not a true Coeliac. Therefore if a Coeliac test&#8217;s negative but symptoms persist, a gluten\/wheat free diet may reduce or eliminate symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are nearly 200 causes of bone loss. But that&#8217;s is why <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/bones-and-joints\/musculoskeletal-diseases-in-ireland\/\" target=\"_blank\">it\u2019s time to ask the question: do you have any risk factors?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Causes of bone loss must be found and addressed, not assumed. The causes can be found by blood tests and an extensive questionnaire. Some of the most common causes are: low levels of vitamin D, family history of a broken hip, the menopause, steroids, chemotherapy, eating disorders, stress, excess alcohol consumption and smoking to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> of bone loss must be found and addressed, not assumed. The causes can be found by blood tests and an extensive questionnaire. Some of the most common causes are: low levels of vitamin D, family history of a broken hip, the menopause, steroids, chemotherapy, eating disorders, stress, excess alcohol consumption and smoking to name a few.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Osteoporosis is a disease which causes the insides of a person\u2019s bones to become fragile and break very easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bones-and-joints"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/01\/07211547\/health-news-ireland-advice-milk-calcium-vitamin-D-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/01\/07211547\/health-news-ireland-advice-milk-calcium-vitamin-D-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Health Awareness","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/jennyhyndman\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4295,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/4295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}