Читать книгу The Vitamin Cure - Monte Lai - Страница 22

Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets in children (103) and osteomalacia in adults.

 • Rickets. Vitamin D promotes the mineralization of calcium phosphate in the bones, increasing bone density and strength. The bones of children with vitamin D deficiency may grow in length but lack mineralization of calcium phosphate, resulting in soft and porous bones. Such bones cannot support the weight of the body and become bent and deformed. This is known as rickets.

 • Osteomalacia. Calcium in bones exists in a homeostatic state—an equilibrium of deposition and removal. Vitamin D deficiency causes removal rather than deposition of calcium in the bones, triggering loss of bone density and, in severe cases, resulting in osteomalacia, or soft bone disease, which is characterized by aching pain in the lower back, pelvis, hips, legs, and ribs in adults. Osteomalacia can lead to osteoporosis.