Metropolis Healthcare has find out in its study that deficiency of vitamin D is noticiable in Mumbai and has ill-effects on bone health as well as a risk for high blood pressure, diabetes and heart diseases.
In many people, vitamin D deficiency causes an increase in the levels of a hormone called Parathyroid Hormone (PTH). The role of this hormone is to maintain the balance of calcium level in the blood stream. In vitamin D deficiency the blood calcium level begins to drop. With this drop, PTH levels increase and moves the calcium from bones into the blood stream, to maintain the blood calcium level. Thus, increase in PTH decreases the calcium content of bones making them weak, fragile and more prone to fractures.
On the other hand, vitamin D deficiency and increase in PTH levels, individually; increase the risk of high BP, diabetes and heart diseases. Looking at the gravity of vitamin D deficiency, Metropolis Healthcare studied its data to gain deeper insights into the problem.
Metropolis analysed its vitamin D deficiency data to extrapolate the likelihood of having increased PTH; since vitamin D alone doesn’t affect bone health or increase the chances of diabetes, BP and Heart diseases. In many studies it has been proven that more severe is the deficiency, higher are the chances of increased PTH levels. Having understood the role of PTH in vitamin D deficiency it was important to understand the chances of PTH elevation. Of the 126,598 samples tested positive for vitamin D deficiency (from January to December 2012) at Metropolis Mumbai labs.
Out of 126,598 samples, 61,279 samples would have the likelihood of increased PTH. Such patients therefore would be at a higher risk of compromised bone health, diabetes, high BP and heart diseases. Of these deficient samples, 66 per cent were of women, 31 per cent of men and three per cent of children. Higher and more severe deficiency was found in the age group of 30 to 40 years of age (3,625 samples of vitamin D <5 ng/ml and 14,623 samples of vitamin D between 5 to 10 ng/ml), followed by children between 0 to 10 years of age (1,879 samples of vitamin D <5 ng/ml and 7,068 samples of vitamin D between 5 to 10 ng/ml).