Rickets Disease Essay

609 Words3 Pages
Rickets Disease Rickets disease is a disease of growing bone characterized by deficient mineralization at the level of the growth plate and is accompanied by osteomalacia. Rickets is often called osteomalacia. Osteomalacia is a disease in which insufficient mineralization leads to a softening of the bones. This normally is caused by a deficiency of vitamin D. Rickets is most common in young children from the ages of six months to 24 months. There are different types of rickets such as hypophosphatemia rickets (vitamin D resistant rickets), renal rickets, and the most common of them all nutritional rickets. Descriptions of rickets can be found as far back as the second century from the Romans. In the 1640s it was a common bone aliment across England. However, it wasn’t until the 1920s that rickets was scientifically proven. By the 1930s public health initiatives recommended fortifying milk with vitamin D and cod liver oil as a nutritional supplement for infants and children. This recommendation led to an eradication of the disease from the United States and other industrialized countries. Unfortunately rickets did comeback and is still pretty common in underdeveloped countries. Nutritional rickets is almost always caused by vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is extremely important in the normal formation of bones and teeth. It is also a key player in for the right amount of absorption of calcium and phosphorus from the bowels. Vitamin D is also naturally synthesized by the skin cells in response to sun exposure. Some of the signs and symptoms of rickets are delayed growth, pain in the spine, pelvis, and legs, and muscle weakness. The softened growth plates at the ends of a child’s bones due to rickets can cause bowed legs, abnormally curved spine, thickened wrists and ankles, and breastbone projections. Bone pain skeletal

More about Rickets Disease Essay

Open Document