Spending long hours indoors doing embroidery or stitching garments has deprived the women in Kashmir of required amounts of vitamin ‘D’, according to a study.
Long hours indoors has led to vitamin D deficiency in them: study
SRINAGAR: Spending long hours indoors doing embroidery or stitching garments has deprived the women in Kashmir of required amounts of vitamin ‘D’, according to a study.
The study carried out by a team of doctors of Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences headed by Dr Abdul Hamid Zargar, director, found that a large number of women in the state suffer from deficiency of Vitamin D which results in poor bone health.
It took his team three years to complete the study.
“We checked the apparently normal women. They were not ill but were found to have vitamin D deficiency,” Dr Zargar said.
The study, according to Dr Zargar, was conducted to estimate the prevalence of this deficiency in the valley.
The projected number of women with this deficiency among a total population of females aged 20 years (12,32,827 as per consensus data) would be 38,691 in Kashmir valley, he said.
Dr Zargar said during the study his team found that vitamin D deficiency is widespread among the people especially women in Kashmir.
Although this is a universal phenomenon, in Kashmir it is a bit on a higher side, he added.
In children, vitamin D deficiency causes rickets. Rickets is a bone disease characterised by a failure to properly mineralise bone tissue. Rickets results in soft bones and skeletal deformities.
The most common causes of rickets are vitamin D deficient diet and lack of sunlight or both.
To supplement the income of the family, women in Kashmir both in rural and urban areas, remain indoors most of the time, spinning the wheels or engaged in embroidery on shawls and other garments.
This could be one of the reasons behind women suffering from the deficiency.
Zargar said that in adults, vitamin D deficiency can lead to Osteomalacia which results in muscular weakness in addition to weak bones.
Massive multilateral efforts are required to contain and finally eradicate this problem, Dr Zargar said, adding it can be difficult to obtain enough vitamin D from natural food sources.
For many people, consuming vitamin D fortified foods and adequate sunlight exposure are essential for maintaining a healthy vitamin D status.
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