Top Ten Interesting Facts about Vitamin Deficiency

What is Vitamin Deficiency / Avitaminosis?

Vitamin deficiency is a deficiency which is caused by lack of one or more essential vitamins in our body. Some diets are making you prone to vitamin deficiency which is called as primary deficiency. Some medical conditions also can affect your absorption of vitamins which is called as secondary deficiency (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Vitamin deficiency

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Insufficient intake of food, lack of ability to absorb vitamins, and less nutrient diet are the main causes of vitamin deficiency (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Main nutritional deficiencies

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The signs of vitamin deficiency are hair loss, burning sensation in the feet or tongue, wounds are slow to heal, bone pain, irregular heartbeat, and night vision get worse (3^✔ ✔Trusted Source
6 Signs of Nutrient Deficiency

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Top Ten Interesting Facts about Vitamin Deficiency

Statistics on Vitamin Deficiency

1. Deficiency of vitamin A (45%), vitamin C (46%), vitamin D (95%), vitamin E (84%), and zinc (15%) are present among Americans (4^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Inadequacy of Immune Health Nutrients: Intakes in US Adults
   
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2. Around 33% of children under the age of five from the developing countries have vitamin A deficiency. This deficiency causes low immunity and night blindness (5^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Vitamin A Deficiency
   
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3. An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 children in the world are becoming blind every year because of vitamin A deficiency. Also, around 50% of them die within a year of losing their vision (6^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   About Vitamin A deficiency
   
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4. Sun is a natural source of vitamin D, however its deficiency is quite common. Almost 90% of colored Americans are deficient of vitamin D and the deficiency is 70% among elderly Americans. The figures are similar in other countries (7^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Vitamin D Deficiency
   
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Effects of Vitamin Deficiencies

5. Researchers are beginning to find that low levels of vitamin D may linked to other diseases, including high blood pressure, depression, obesity, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer (8^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Vitamin D and Chronic Diseases
   
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6. Vitamin B12 deficiency with elevated homocysteine levels were linked to early death because of heart disease and Alzheimer's disease (9^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Low Vitamin B12 Levels: An Underestimated Cause Of Minimal Cognitive Impairment And Dementia
   
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7. Vitamin B12 deficiency may cause impotence or recurrent spontaneous abortion (10^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Vitamin B12 deficiency, infertility and recurrent fetal loss
   
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8. Deficiency of vitamin B6 or folic acid during pregnancy is associated with neural tube defect among newborns (11^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   Folic acid and neural tube defects: Discovery, debate and the need for policy change
   
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9. In Asia, where polished white rice was the key staple food of the middle class, a deficiency of Vitamin B1 (thiamine) was observed. A condition called beriberi was endemic for many decades and millions were crippled because of the disease (12^✔ ✔Trusted Source
   British India and the "Beriberi Problem"
   
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10. James Lind, a Scottish doctor from Royal Navy was responsible for discovery of scurvy (lack of vitamin C). This was common among sailors who sailed the seas in the 17th century (13^✔ ✔Trusted Source
    James Lind
    
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