Special Populations

Certain people are more at risk of vitamin D deficiency than others. Oftentimes, there is no way to change the factors that are putting these people at greater risk.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) identifies the following groups at risk of vitamin D deficiency¹:

• Breastfed Infants. Human breast milk contains is considered the most perfect nutrition for infants. However, it contains only trace amounts of vitamin D. This is reason for the long-standing recommendations for breastfed infants to receive a vitamin D supplement.
• Adults over 50 yrs of age. Research shows that older individuals have a greater risk of hip fractures and this is often associated with low blood levels of 25(OH)D.
• Many people spend the majority of the day indoors at work, school or other activities, limiting their time in direct sunshine. This also includes people who live in northern climates, and climates that do not receive sunshine. This also includes individuals who may wear robes and coverings for religious reasons.
• People with dark skin. Darker skin pigmentation means that it takes longer (sometimes 4 times longer depending on the level of skin colour) for these individuals to make vitamin D in the skin.
• People who have difficult digesting fat. Impaired fat absorption is associated with a variety of medical conditions including some forms of liver disease, cystic fibrosis, and Crohn's disease. Vitamin D is a fat-soluable vitamin, and dietary sources of vitamin D may be difficult to absorb for people with these conditions.
• Obesity and people who have undergone gastric bypass surgery. Experts suspect that the relationship between obesity and lower vitamin D levels may be due to storage of vitamin D in excess body fat.