Vitamin D and Rickets

Centuries ago, during the industrial revolution, rickets, also called 'the English disease', spread rapidly among city-dwelling poor children and became endemic due to vitamin D deficiency and insufficient access to sunlight. Nowadays it appears to be endemic again as the increase of vitamin D deficiency is paralleling the primacy of breast-feeding in Western societies. Breastfeeding, nutritional status and dark skin are the main risk factors for rickets or 'rachitis' as is the correct medical t