Rickets is a result of which vitamin deficiency?

• A. Vitamin A
• B. Vitamin C
• C. Vitamin D
• D. Vitamin K

Answer: (C)

Vitamin D is essential for mineralizing growing bones because it enables the intestine to absorb calcium and phosphate, which are the building blocks bones need to harden. When vitamin D is deficient, calcium (and often phosphate) absorption drops, leading to low blood calcium and impaired bone mineralization. In children, this defective mineralization at the growth plates causes rickets, producing soft, bending bones and characteristic skeletal deformities such as bowed legs and widened growth plates. Vitamin D can come from sun exposure, fortified foods, fatty fish, or supplements, helping maintain proper calcium and phosphate levels for normal bone growth. By comparison, deficiencies of other vitamins lead to different problems—Vitamin A affects vision and immunity, Vitamin C causes scurvy with gum issues and poor wound healing, and Vitamin K affects blood clotting—so they don’t produce the rickets pattern of impaired bone mineralization.