Medical Health Encyclopedia

Rickets

Nutritional causes of rickets occur because of a lack of vitamin D in the diet or in association with malabsorption disorders characterized by poor fat absorption.

A dietary lack of vitamin D may occasionally occur in people on a vegetarian diet who do not drink milk products or in people who are lactose intolerant (have trouble digesting milk products).

A dietary lack of calcium and phosphorous may also play a part in the nutritional causes of rickets. Rickets caused by a dietary lack of these minerals is rare in developed countries because calcium and phosphorous are present in milk and green vegetables.

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Hereditary rickets is an inherited form of the disease caused when the kidneys are unable to retain phosphate. Rickets may also be caused by kidney disorders involving renal tubular acidosis.

Occasionally, it can also affect children who have disorders of the liver, do not adequately absorb fats and vitamin D, or cannot convert vitamin D to its active form.

Renal osteodystrophy occurs in people with chronic renal failure. The manifestation is virtually identical to that of rickets in children and that of osteomalacia or osteoporosis in adults.

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