Question

Marie is a 63 year old African American women from the Midwest. She is lactose intolerant and prefers staying indoors as opposed to going outside. Lately she has had terrible bone pain and a recent checkup confirms that Marie is deficient in vitamin D and has a disease called

Answer 1

The disease Marie has is called Osteomalacia.

Explanation:

Osteomalacia is the softening of bones,usually occurring as a result of vitamin D deficiency. Some of the most common symptoms of osteomalcia are:

• Severe bone pain, especially in form of a dull pain in the lower back, pelvis, hip bones and legs.
• Muscle weakness.
• Weakened gait.
• Elevated bone pain at night.

Osteomalacia is caused by vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency can occur due to the following:

• Having dark skin: Darker skinned individuals can not as efficiently synthesize vitamin D using sunlight.
• Not eating enough fish or dairy: Dairy and fish products are rich in vitamin D. Not consuming enough of these foods can cause vitamin D deficiency.
• Limited exposure to sun: Staying indoors does not provide an individual with enough sunlight to synthesize vitamin D required for the body.
• Age: The ability to synthesize vitamin D decreases in efficiency with age. Thus the elderly have a reduced ability to synthesize vitamin D.
• Weight: Overweight and obese person also have reduced ability to synthesize vitamin D.

Now, from the above information. it is clear that Marie was suffering from vitamin D deficiency as she is elderly, has both dark skin and limited exposure to the sun, and did not receive vitamin D from dairy in her diet as she is lactose intolerant.

Her terrible bone pain can be attributed to her vitamin D deficiency and hence the disease she is diagnosed with must be Osteomalacia.

In the elderly, osteomalacia greatly weakens bones and increases the chance of fracture. To recover she must eat food rich in vitamin D and possible take vitamin D supplement.