{"id":30581,"date":"2014-02-06T14:50:12","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T10:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=30581"},"modified":"2014-02-06T14:50:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T10:50:12","slug":"believe-saudis-getting-enough-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/believe-saudis-getting-enough-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Believe It Or Not: Saudis Not Getting Enough Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Partial_Eclipse_of_the_Sun\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunny Saudi Arabia is facing problems with Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is one of the vitamins that the human body can produce for itself; it only needs exposure to sunlight. Unlike certain Western movements that seek to avoid exposure to the sun \u2014 in order to avoid skin cancers or just to keep pale skin \u2014 Saudi Arabia\u2019s deficiencies are due to avoiding the Sun for some other reasons.<\/p>\n

One, of course, is that the sunlight in Saudi Arabia is awfully intense (though not as intense as in countries at high altitude). People don\u2019t like to bake, if they can avoid it. Another, not stated in this Arab News<\/i> article, is that Saudis tend to cover up for reasons of modesty \u2014 both male and female \u2014 and end up blocking the sun. One reason provided in the article, though, is bogus: shades or tinting on automobile windows is inconsequential as glass is an effective barrier in itself. Sedentary lifestyles may also bear some blame, but one has to admit that there\u2019re so few outdoor, daytime activities that meet with social approval that one might as well stay indoors.<\/p>\n

Vitamin D deficiency plagues Saudis<\/a>
\nRIYADH: ARAB NEWS<\/p>\n

Despite the Kingdom being among the top countries in the world in terms of exposure to sunlight, Saudis ironically suffer from a severe lack of vitamin D, of which the sun is a natural source.<\/p>\n

This was revealed by Nasser bin Mohammed Al-Daggrey, supervisor of Prince Miteb bin Abdullah Center for Research in Biomarkers for Osteoporosis. The average sunlight in the Kingdom is an estimated 2,200 kWh per square meter, due to its location on the earth\u2019s sunbelt.<\/p>\n

Al-Daggrey said the importance of vitamin D lies in its ability to absorb calcium and phosphorus, which are nutrients that play a prominent role in protecting human bones and the strength of muscles, as well help fight diseases such as colon cancer, breast cancer, heart disease, Type I diabetes, and the common flu.<\/p>\n

Many Saudis suffer from severe vitamin D deficiency due to lack of exposure to the sun on a daily basis. Prolonged stay indoors or in places away from sunlight, the use of shades on vehicle windshields and consuming junk food low in nutrients all contribute to this deficiency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CROSSROADS ARABIA: A deficiency in Vitamin D is a serious issue for a significant portion of Saudi society. What’s going on? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":30584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,90,482,10,5],"tags":[18329,18117,16495,18113,17978,17637,18119,18116,18115,18114,18118],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30581"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30586,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30581\/revisions\/30586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}