The Indian Medical Association under its Rise and Shine campaign on Sunday organised a continuing medical education (CME) programme here to discuss the growing epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency among the Indian people. The CME was attended by over 40 leading doctors of the city.
Vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, plays a crucial role in calcium and bone metabolism. It protects the body against cognitive disorders, diabetes, cancer and CVDs like congestive heart failure and left ventricular hypertrophy.
The Rise and Shine campaign is a national movement initiated last year by the Indian Medical Association under an unconditional educational grant from USV. It aims to create, over a period of two years, sensitivity in its 2.5-lakh members across 30 States and 1,700 branches about the need to raise awareness of Vitamin D deficiency.
Dr. Harischandra Prasad, MD General Medicine, Bhimavaram, said that incidence of Vitamin D deficiency was rapidly growing among the Indian population owing to poor dietary habits, inadequate exposure to sunlight and absence of national food fortification policy.
