It appears that being a practicing Muslim doesn’t simply increase your likelihood of having lowered bone mineral density (BMD) as a result of praying five times daily or wearing a hijab; physicians at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit have found the conservative dress of the hijab to cause dangerously low vitamin D levels.

For the study, researchers recruited women who attended an ethnic supermarket in Dearborn during the course of two Saturdays in April 2007 to search for correlations with dress, diet, use of vitamin D-fortified foods and vitamin supplements. They were interviewed to assess dress, medical history, medication use, clinical symptoms associated with vitamin D deficiency, consumption of fortified milk or fortified orange juice and vitamin supplements. Blood samples also were taken onsite and analyzed for levels of vitamin D and parathyroid hormone and other minerals.

Dr. Hobbs says Henry Ford is launching an awareness campaign to educate the Arab American community in Dearborn about the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and offer options for addressing the problem.

The study appeared in Endocrine Practice, and assuming I get a few moments tonight I will write up a proper review. Although, I can already see a clear solution to the problem…

[via EurekaAlert!]