DOHA: About 65 percent of people in Qatar have Vitamin D deficiency because they don’t expose themselves to sunshine, a new study by a Qatar-based doctor has found. Vitamin D is also known as the sunshine vitamin.
Dr Elham Sharif, a faculty member of bio-medical programme at College of Arts and Sciences of Qatar University, said the vitamin was mostly found to be deficient among young people, women and children who most of the time stayed indoors, reported Arabic daily Al Raya.
She said among the causes of deficiency was avoiding sunlight, aging, having dark or brown skin colour and taking certain medicines. She stressed the need for everyone to expose themselves to sunshine especially in the morning and evening hours for about 10 to 15 minutes daily, use food supplements containing he vitamin and pay attention to the quality of food they are eating.
She said fish, sardine, mushroom, egg yolk, liver and dairy products are enriched with the vitamin. She said Vitamin D helps absorb calcium and phosphate from small intestine and put it in bones, strengthening them.
Vitamin D deficiency leads to problems like weaker bones and could also cause diabetes, and breast, colon and prostate cancers, among others
She said among the symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency are curved legs and rickets among children while adults complain of bone pain, muscle weakness, general tiredness and aches.
