Hypothesis: Why so many females in the Middle East are now Vitamin D Deficient

Based on reading about dress codes for women and recently seeing the movie Wadjda , which is set in Saudia Arabia

1. Dress codes started when living in tribes and women may have only needed to cover themselves when there were outside male visitors
   • Plenty of access to the sun most of the time
2. Dress codes continued when people moved to cities
   • Women still got vitamin D in courtyards or rooftops - not wear excessive clothes when men from the family could not see them
   • Even being in the shade the women would get about 1/3 the amount of vitamin D/hour
3. Air conditioning became prevalent in the last portion of the 20th century, allowing people to escape the heat
   • Rate of Multiple Sclerosis in women has gone up 6X in the past 30 years in Tehran (MS is strongly related to lack of vitamin D)

4. Predict that rickets will make its appearance soon in the Middle East

   • Turkey managed to reduce rate of rickets by 60X by giving 400 IU of vitamin D to EVERY child

   Hajab prevalence: Wikipedia

Nice dress code summary

Male Dominated Culture joke

See also Medical Publication

• Ethnicity, Clothing Style And Body Mass Index Are Significant Predictors Of Vitamin D Insufficiency In Germany Oct 2014
  • Turkish women in Germany were 3.6 X more likely to have low vitamin D(<30 ng)when they wore covered clothing

See also VitaminDWiki

• VPS Healthcare in Abu Dhabi invested million dollars in Vitamin D research - Sept 2014

• If heavily clothed, very little vitamin D – Dec 2012

• More hijab clothing may have resulted in 6X increase in Multiple Sclerosis in Tehran – May 2013