Large-scale UAE study of vitamin D levels

Daniel Bardsley and Matt Kwong

• Last Updated: October 19. 2009 9:53PM UAE / October 19. 2009 5:53PM GMT

ABU DHABI // A study is under way to monitor the vitamin D levels of hundreds of Emiratis for up to two years in an attempt to find ways to prevent the widespread deficiency of a nutrient considered essential to good health.

The research, announced yesterday, will be conducted on 200 female students at Zayed University and 500 other non-university volunteers. The Emirates Foundation will fund the testing of the 500 volunteers. Sheikh Khalifa Medical City will test all the blood samples.

Subjects whose samples show low levels of vitamin D – a healthy amount is between 75 and 250 nanomoles per litre of blood – will be given supplements then retested.

The subjects will also be asked about their diet and exposure to sunlight – which enables the body to create vitamin D – and tests will be carried out in the winter and summer to determine when deficiency levels are at their highest.

Dr Fatme al Anouti, an assistant professor at Zayed University and an organiser of the study, said she suspected the problem may be greatest during the hot summer months, when people tend to stay indoors.

Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium and is considered essential for maintaining healthy muscles, bones and teeth. It is also important for the immune system and affects many aspects of the body’s functioning. Low levels can lead to depression, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and breast, prostate and colon cancer.

The study is likely to last two years and the researchers hope to publish their findings in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Dr Afrozul Haq, a senior clinical scientist at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City’s department of laboratory medicine, said traditional dress played “a very important role” in low vitamin D levels.

“All the females at the university cover their bodies with the abaya and they’re hardly exposed to the sun,” he said. “Even if they are healthy, their vitamin D level is not necessarily normal.”

Another factor in the Emirates, he said, was that foods did not contain vitamin D supplements, in contrast to the situation in many western countries.

“In the United States, most of the drinks are fortified with vitamin D – milk and juices are fortified – which is an important issue.”

Sheikh Khalifa Medical City on average tests 120 blood samples per day for vitamin D levels, Dr Haq said. Tests on tens of thousands of samples from both Emiratis and expatriates indicate that about 65 per cent of women and 60 per cent of men are vitamin D deficient. Some have shown levels as low as 10 nanomoles per litre.

Dr Haq said it could take just 10 minutes of direct exposure to sunlight twice a week, over 25 per cent of the body, to maintain proper levels of vitamin D. However, people with dark skin produce five to six times less vitamin D per exposure to the sun than those with lighter complexions.

Although vitamin D deficiency is widespread in the country, awareness of the problem is not. For Mariam al Amimi, an Emirati communications student, it was only after she gave birth to her first child two and a half years ago that she realised she might have a problem.

“At first, I was feeling pain in my feet,” said Mrs al Amimi, 23. “And my mother said to go to the hospital and test myself, because maybe it’s my vitamin D. I did the test and they said I’m suffering from this because it’s very low.” Her mother and four of her sisters were also found to have vitamin D deficiency, she said.

While she soaked up the rays during a recent trip to Europe, “the problem in the summer in Abu Dhabi is it’s so hot – too hot to sit under the sun”, she said.

Mrs al Amimi was advised by her doctor to consume more fish such as salmon, as well as fortified milk, and to spend more time in direct sunlight. She also began taking supplements.

“Now I’m feeling good,” she said.

Her friend Hessa, also 23 and from Abu Dhabi, had herself tested for vitamin D deficiency in high school when she began experiencing fatigue.

“At that time, the doctor said I was feeling a weakness because of this lack of vitamin D and because we always have an abaya to cover us,” she said.

She took supplements for six months and now makes an effort to go outdoors with her sisters in the late afternoon, when the temperature is lower but the sun is still shining. “Or in the early morning, we go outside the villa to eat breakfast and enjoy it,” she said.

Ahmed al Sarkal, an Emirati businessman from Dubai, estimates that he gets less than 30 minutes of sunlight a day, mostly while commuting to his office, but suspects that it may not be enough.

“We know we’re not getting enough sunlight,” Mr al Sarkal, 41, said when told of the statistics from the blood tests at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City. “It’s the lifestyle here.”

Meanwhile, staff at the pharmacy at Boots in Al Wahda Mall said they sold five units of vitamin C for every unit of vitamin D.

“Most people maybe don’t know they’re vitamin D deficient,” said Jocelyn Aquino, a sales associate. “They know vitamin E is for the skin, vitamin C is for the immune system, but there’s a lack of knowledge about vitamin D.”

dbardsley@thenational.ae

mkwong@thenational.ae