Computer gaming and Facebook cause rickets.
Well, no.
There seems to be a a widespread rise in vitamin D deficiency. This could be a lack of sun or shortcomings in diet.
It is a long stretch to say that gaming or Facebook are responsible, expecially when rickets usually starts to appear before age two. Most online gamers and Facebook users are a little older than this.
Even in very young children vitamin D deficiency can be caused by lack of sun as well as diet. But if computer games are not to blame, what is?
Last night I saw on TV a terrifying ad that showed a young man at a beach. As soon as he took his shirt off, deadly rays from the sun struck his skin. As the rays penetrated inside, one skin cell turned black and then began taking over other cells and turing them black. A stern voice said something like ‘A tan is your body’s way of protecting your skin against cancer. There is nothing healthy about a tan.’
This was a government sponsored announcement to warn people that even the smallest amount of exposure to the sun will give you melanoma and kill you. You never know, so it is better to wear a burqa every time you go outside.
That was the message I got, anyway. And incidentally, vitamin D deficiency is a major problem for women in Saudi Arabia.
No wonder people are scared to go outside without ‘slip,slop,slapping’ themselves or their children to the point that not one bit of ultra-violet gets through. As a consequence of which the body cannot manufacture any vitamin D.
Half the advice given by doctors and scientists is wrong and should be ignored.
The problem is working out which half.
In The Blue Zones (a bestselling book I reviewed), we learn that people with long life expectancies enjoy the great outdoors. Okinawa. Sardinia. Loma Linda. Costa Rica. They’re nearly all “sun worshippers.”
A simple and itenlliengt point, well made. Thanks!