Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women at risk of vitamin D deficiency

Despite Israel's sunny skies, a large proportion of young ultra-Orthodox Jewish women there have been found in a study to suffer from vitamin D deficiency.

The research, comprising 156 ultra-Orthodox (“haredi”) new mothers and 186 secular Jewish counterparts, pointed to religiously dictated fashion as the culprit. Long sleeved dresses, high necklines, opaque stockings, hats, and other headgear worn for reasons of modesty even in the summer can cause women to have inadequate stores of vitamin D and put them at high risk of osteoporosis in middle and old age.

Professor Yosef Weisman, director of the bone disease unit at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, found that …