islamabad - Bone disorders are more prevalent in women and about 80% of them suffer from those.
This was stated by medical expert Dr Ayesha Abbas while talking to private News channel. Bone disorders, she said, were due to vitamin D deficiency which absorbs calcium from intestines and circulate it to different body parts through blood.
Dr Ayesha recommended green leafy vegetables, fish, egg, milk and a glass of milk to prevent vitamin D deficiency. Tea should be avoided as it depletes calcium from bones, she said and added instead, green tea should be taken.
Dr Ayesha’s point of view was endorsed by an article of BBC good food Magazine, which stated, Vitamin D was made in the skin through direct exposure to sunlight. Approximately 20-30 minutes of direct sunlight two to three times a week should be enough for a person to make the vitamin D they need, it further stated.
“Vitamin D is extremely important for strong bones and teeth, the article emphasised. It’s really important that our vitamin D levels aren’t low or our body won’t absorb the calcium we eat,” it added.
“There aren’t any visual signs of vitamin D deficiency; If our levels are very low and we are severely deficient, we are at risk of developing weaker bones which is a condition known as osteomalacia,” it observed.
Severe deficiency in children may result in soft skull or leg bones and their legs may look curved or bow-legged, which is a condition called rickets, it revealed.
Too much sun exposure could be damaging due to the risk of developing skin cancer. Only spend a small amount of time in the sun without sunscreen either early in the morning or late in the afternoon and the rest of the time be sure to cover up and avoid any chance of sunburn, it cautioned.
Half the world population to become myopic by 2050: Study
Nearly five billion people, that is about half the world’s population, are poised to become myopic or short-sighted by the end of 2050, said a study. Also called nearsightedness, myopia is a vision condition in which people can see clearly the objects that are close to eyes but objects far away appear to be blurred to the sight, Gulf news reported. Acting like a silent epidemic, myopia is all set to become the leading cause of permanent blindness globally.
With up to one billion people at an increased risk of blindness, myopia is all set to become the leading cause of permanent blindness globally. Further, with the findings suggesting that the US will have 260 million myopes by 2050, up from the 90 million in 2000, and Canada will see 66 million high myopes by 2050, up from the 11 million in 2000, the vision loss from high myopia is expected to increase seven-fold from 2000 to 2050.
The rapid increase in the prevalence of myopia globally is attributed to “environmental factors, lifestyle changes resulting from a combination of decreased time outdoors and increased near work activities, among other factors”, said the researchers. Parents need to ensure that the children’s eyes are regularly checked, improve time outdoors and moderate time on near based activities, including electronic devices.
Also, comprehensive eye care services is needed to check the rapid increase in high myopes, along with the development of treatments to control the progression of myopia and prevent people from becoming highly myopic, the researchers suggested in the study published in the journal Ophthalmology revealed. “We also need to ensure our children receive a regular eye examination from an optometrist or ophthalmologist, preferably each year, so that preventative strategies can be employed if they are at risk,” said Kovin Naidoo, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.