Impact of Scotland's sun deprived weather revealed in ancient skeletons lacking crucial vitamin

Scotland is famous the world over for tartan, bagpipes, kilts, whisky, and a good sense of humour. One thing the country is not noted for, though, is the weather.

Billy Connolly once said "there are two seasons in Scotland - June and winter". Archaeologists and nutrition scientists from the University of Aberdeen have now went one step further to show how sun-deprived Scots are.

The "global first" study examined the long-term effects of living with limited winter sunlight. Despite huge shifts in lifestyle and diet, modern day Scots were found to experience the same vitamin D deficiency as their ancestors 400 years ago.

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"This unique study has shown is that levels in many of our modern participants were similar to those of our archaeological sample, and that levels were consistently higher in summer and lower in winter in people who lived in the same city 400 years apart," said archaeologist Kate Britton, who led the research team.

The team compared vitamin D levels in the hair of volunteers living in the Aberdeen area for at least two and a half years with those found in a rare sample of preserved hair from a burial previously excavated from St Nicholas Kirk, believed to be a resident of the city in the 16th or 17th century.

Vitamin D is crucial for healthy bone growth and plays a huge role in chronic disease development, inflammation, and immunity.

However, in Scotland, the sun is only strong enough for our bodies to produce its own vitamin D between April and September.

Besides spending time outdoors, dietary sources such as oily fish and supplements can also boost vitamin D levels.

Professor Britton went on: "The study is a global first in applying a new technique to measure vitamin D using hair in an ancient specimen and it opens a new window into the lives of those living in the past...

"In recent years there have been so many health promotions around the benefits of supplementing with vitamin D during winter. We might expect [then] that... this seasonal variation would be less significant."

She offered reason to the findings: "The medieval population will have spent more time outside and those living in coastal areas like Aberdeen may have consumed a greater proportion of their diet from local sources like fish."

Measuring vitamin D using hair "opens a new window into the lives of those living in the past," researchers enthused. They are hopeful this technique can shed light on other health aspects like stress and drug use in the past.