11. Rickets, caused by vitamin deficient diets and lifestyles, is beginning to make a return in the developed world due to our increasingly unhealthy modern lifestyles
Rickets, commonly appearing in children suffering from a vitamin D deficiency, is a medical condition wherein the bones of the victim become soft, weak, and develop abnormally. Spanning bowed legs, stunted growth, misshapen skulls, muscle spasms, and even, in extreme cases, brain or spinal injuries. First detailed in the ancient world among the infants of Rome, it was not recognized in England until the 17th century. By the mid-19th, however, rickets was sufficiently widespread that an estimated 80-90 percent of all children in Britain suffered from the condition. Although initially thought to be caused by the inclusion of harmful substances in food preparation, the true cause was identified by the turn of the 20th century.
Treated with a combination of ultraviolet light and high vitamin diets, by 1945 rickets had been, generally speaking, eliminated in the United States, with the remainder of the developed world soon following. Whilst remaining a plight in developing countries, albeit increasing less prominently so, recent years has seen a worrisome rise in reported cases of rickets in the developed world once more. Changes to modern diets, with a decrease in healthy eating in conjunction with a growing lack of time spent outdoors by young persons today, has resulted in a dramatic increase in diagnosed cases of rickets in both contemporary Europe and North America for the first time in nearly a century.