A leading researcher of Britain has urged the people, especially kids who spend less time outdoor now than what they did ten years ago, to begin consuming vitamin D supplements.
While his visit to the hay literary festival held in Wales, Steve Jones, a renowned geneticist, who never thought he would begin consuming vitamin supplements, said that he now takes vitamin D daily.
Kids today spend an hour less outdoor now than what they did ten years ago since the evolution of smartphones and tablets, he said. In fact, as Scotland receives the least amount of sunlight in the United Kingdom, Scottish kids spend less time under the sun than compared to any other kids across the globe, Jones added.
The bone disease called rickets, which the doctors believed they had eradicated from Britain during the 1950s, is back today due to a shift in the human behaviour that no one thought would ever happen, he said.
Jones said that the advantages of sunlight as well as vitamin D can be felt in a wide range of health ailments including blood pressure and obesity. He gave an example of multiple sclerosis, the most common disease in Canada. In fact, the levels of the disease are more in Scotland in contrast to England.
Jones also acknowledged the fact that too much of sunlight could lead to skin cancer, a finding made during the 1930s in a research conducted on the US Navy sailors’ health. But, it was also found that the sailors had reduced levels of other disease due to their heavy exposure to sunlight.