Lack of exposure to sunlight puts children at risk of rickets, surgeon warns mothers

A former President, Nigerian Medical Association, Prof. Mike Ogirima, has urged mothers to ensure that their children are exposed to the sun once in a while, warning that lack of exposure to sunlight can cause nutritional rickets in children.

Nutritional rickets, according to experts, is a bone disease in early childhood resulting in bone pain, delayed motor development, and bending of the bones, caused by vitamin D deficiency and/or inadequate dietary calcium intake.

According to Mayo Clinic  – a medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research, children with nutritional rickets aside from suffering delayed growth and delayed motor development are also more at risk of developing bow leg, knock knees and breastbone projection.

The health expert flayed some traditional practices that compel mothers and children to stay indoors, noting that cultural practice that prevents children from going outside is unhealthy for proper child growth.

He explained that when children are exposed to the sun, the ultraviolet light in the sunlight converts the inactive form of vitamin D to active forms under the skin.

This, he said, helps reduce the risk of Vitamin D deficiency and thus helps prevent nutritional rickets.

He stated further that rickets causes poor mineralisation of the bone, adding that this often leads to a condition called osteopenia in children. Ostopenia, he said, can also affect adults and can lead to osteoporosis.

The professor of orthopaedic and trauma surgery explained that osteopenia occurs when the bone density is lighter than it is supposed to be, adding that the condition can be detected through an x-ray.

Persons with this condition, he said, are at risk of suffering a sudden bone fracture.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with PUNCH HealthWise, Prof. Ogirima, who is also the Provost, College of Health Science, Federal University Lokoja, noted that while anyone can develop osteopenia, the condition is generally seen more in the elderly, especially females.

He said this is because of the effect of sex hormones, and estrogen levels in the female gender.

He said, “Osteopenia can be caused by inactivity. That is why those staying in one place for a long period of time are at risk. This is because the minerals in the bone will look as if it has been washed-off the bone.

“Also, chronic liver disease, chronic alcoholism and chronic abuse of steroids are the other factors associated with osteopenia.

“Generally, any chronic condition that keeps an individual in one place for about three months or up to six months in one place can result in osteopenia which can lead to osteoporosis.”

Vitamin D deficiency, he explained, “can be caused by kidney problems because the formation of vitamin D goes through the kidney for it to be active.

“So, if you have chronic kidney failure, chronic renal problem, or renal disease, these are the things that can cause the minerals to be washed out of the bones and present it as a very light bone on the x-ray. That is what we call osteopenia.”
Ogirima stated further that individuals suffering from this condition will present symptoms like, “Generalised bone pains, not joint but bones, the person can present easy fracture that is, they can trip, fall and fracture their bones.”

If an individual has osteoporosis or osteopenia, the person will be advised to go for a detailed medical check-up to ascertain the cause, he added when asked about the treatment options available to patients.

He said, “When you do the x-ray and discover osteopenic changes. What is first done is to ascertain the cause.

“For the younger ones, we will find out the cause and treat it. If it is rickets, replace vitamin D and calcium, if it is chronic liver disease, we treat the liver disease, and if it is a chronic renal problem, you have to treat the problem.

“Of course, there is nothing you can do about ageing and that is why we advise aged people to be on supplements. Post-menopausal women are also advised to take calcium supplements, nutrients rich in calcium like dairy products, these are the things that can restore the usual mineral loss in the body.”

Prof. Ogirima also advises Nigerians to engage in regular physical exercise, noting that it would serve as a preventive measure to ensure the bones are in healthy condition.

He said, “They say, movement is life and life is movement. So, don’t be restricted to one place. You must move around so the blood can circulate and the bone can be involved in daily metabolic exchanges.

“This is because what normally keeps the bone strong is the exchange of iron. That involves the calcium and the phosphate in the bone, adding that it helps to balance the blood levels.

“So, if all these are not circulating well, one can have the clinical state of nutritional rickets, osteopenia which can result in osteoporosis.”

He, however, noted that the health condition could be treated, noting that after proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment, the bone can go back to its previous healthy state.