Low vitamin D in young girls may lead to early menstruation, which is a risk factor for a host of health issues for teen girls as well as ladies later in life, according to a brand new study.
Researchers from the University of Illinois School of Public Health measured the blood vitamin D levels in 242 girls ages 5-12 from Bogota, Colombia, and followed them for 30 months.
Girls low on vitamin D were two times as likely to start menstruation in the work of the study than those with sufficient vitamin D, said epidemiologist Eduardo Villamor, associate professor in the U-M SPH.
Early menstruation is a risk factor for behavioural and psychosocial issues in teenagers.
Also, girls who have an earlier menarche appear to have increased risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases and cancer-particularly breast cancer, as adults.
In the research by Villamor and colleagues, 57 percent of the girls in the vitamin D-deficient group reached menarche in the work of the study, compared to 23 percent in the vitamin D-sufficient group.
In terms of age, girls who were low in vitamin D were about 11.8 years elderly when they started menstruating, compared to the other group at about age 12.6 years elderly.
This 10-month difference is substantial, Villamor said, because although ten months may not appear like a long time, at that age a lot is happening quickly to a young girl's body.