There’s more to Vitamin D than just sunlight

Epilepsy is clinically diagnosed after carefully analysing if the seizures are indeed unprovoked epileptic ones. There are other phenomena that can look similar to seizures (or seizure mimics). Video recordings of the episodes in question, if available, help doctors distinguish between seizures and mimics in many cases. But this is rare: epilepsy is a clinical diagnosis and there is no test that will confirm or rule it out. Tests are usually performed to support the diagnosis (EEG) to know which type of epilepsy one is dealing with (EEG/ video-EEG) and to detect its underlying cause (MRI, other brain scans and other tests). The point here is that all these tests can be normal in patients with epilepsy, thus ruling out some of the more sinister causes. — Dr Lakshminarayanan K, Consultant Epileptologist and Paediatric Neurologist, Fortis Malar Hospital.

My son has been diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency. I wanted to know about the causes. Our doctor has said that it was due to lack of exposure to sunlight. But I found that surprising because he is an outdoor kid. — Radha, Anna Nagar 

Lack of sunlight is one of the biggest causes. Since juices and milk products are fortified in Western countries, we don’t see such deficiency, though there is inadequate sunlight. Here, the problem is though there is sunlight, but there is inadequate exposure to it and this leads to pigmented skin. The skin type has lower Vitamin D synthesis from sunlight to the skin, when compared to Caucasians. Milk malabsorption can also be a reason for deficiency, — Dr Bhuma Srinivasan, senior consultant endocrinologist, Vijaya Hospitals