Vitamin D Deficiency in a Sunny Country: The Missing Chain

Vitamin D deficiency results in a failure of osteoid to calcify in a growing person (Rickets), while failure of osteoid to calcify in adults is called osteomalacia. The term rickets comes from the old English word "wricken" meaning to twist or bend. Rickets occurred in humans as early as the second century AD. The disease was not considered a significant health problem until the industrialization of Northern Europe. In the 17 th century, Whistler, De Boot and Glissen independently recognized that many of the children who lived in the crowded and polluted cities in Northern Europe developed a severe bone-deformity disease characterized by enlargement of the epiphyses of the long bones and rib cage, bowing of the legs, bending of the spine, and weak and toneless muscles.