New Hampshire Health News Digest

'Plethora' of diseases caused by low vitamin D - Telegraph : A lack of awareness about vitamin D deficiency and the 'plethora' of disease it is linked to is fuelling a rise in preventable illnesses among children, experts at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have said. Despite low cost supplements being widely available health care professionals and parents do not know the importance of taking them, they said. Doctors have said the poor summer weather will contribute to an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency as the lack of sunshine will have meant depleted stores of the vitamin which the body can make from sunlight. The College has launched a campaign to ensure all pregnant women, those breastfeeding, children aged between six months and five years and the elderly aged over 65 take vitamin D supplements in accordance with guidelines. It comes as figures show that cases of rickets, poor bone growth causing pain and bowed legs, have risen fourfold i...

Diabetes and heart health link | Diabetes Federation of Ireland : It is known that people with poorly controlled diabetes are at higher risk for heart failure but new data from the UK shows that they may have additional causes of heart disease, may develop heart disease younger and have more severe heart disease.  But poor recording practices in Ireland means that the HSE cannot provide detailed information about the links between hearth health and diabetes.    “Medical data about the health of the Irish population is especially ill suited to planning of health services.  If we in Diabetes Ireland or Department of Health wanted to examine the link between diabetes and heart disease we can’t depend on extracting robust figures from the HSE’s Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) system nor is there a diabetes register” says Dr. Anna Clarke, Health Promotion and Research Manager with Diabetes Ireland.  [...] Diabetes Ireland’s advice to people with ...

Race, daytime sleepiness, and vitamin D related in new study - Birmingham science news | Examiner.com Race, the occurrence of daytime sleepiness , and vitamin D have been definitively connected by a new study conducted David McCarty , MD at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine , and published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine on December 14, 2012. This is the first study to demonstrate a significant relationship between sleepiness and vitamin D . Race is a factor because previous research has shown that increased skin pigmentation is an established risk factor for low vitamin D. “Results show that in patients with normal vitamin D levels, progressively higher levels of daytime sleepiness were correlated inversely with progressively lower levels of vitamin D. Among patients with vitamin D deficiency, sleepiness and vitamin D levels were associated only among black patients. Surprisingly, this correlation was observed in a direct relationship, with higher vitamin D...