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Expert warns that our children are at risk of a rickets epidemic.
Steve Jones a leading geneticist said rickets which was common in Victorian times is coming back at speed. Because children spend less time in the sun which means they get less vitamin D. The vitamin is very important because it can help tackle disease and strengthen the immune system.
British children spend to much time indoors playing on smartphones and tablets. They spend an hour a day less outside than they did ten years ago. Rickets is coming back fast because of a change in human behaviour. Rickets affects bone development in children, it causes pain poor growth and soft weak bones that can lead to deformities.
Rickets can be caused by a lack of vitamin D. Vitamin D is found in sunlight, and food such as oily fish and egg yolks.
Rickets was virtually eradicated in the 1950,s and it is shocking that it is returning. Up to 450 children are admitted to hospital each year with the disease, and cases have doubled in a decade.
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