[p2p-research] Vitamin D and health (skin color issues)

[Paul D. Fernhout]

Another related item on this issue:
"Why Michelle Obama is More Likely to Die From Breast Cancer than Hilary 
Clinton" by Curtis Duncan
http://curtisduncan.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-michelle-obama-is-more-likely-to.html
"""
Race is always a hot topic here but people always seem to neglect discussing 
the topic of race and health. If it is discussed, it is always a matter of 
stating that Blacks or other minorities are not getting enough treatment and 
early detection particularly in the realm of cancer. It is true though, that 
Blacks do have higher rates of every other disease you can think of. And 
money does not fix this health epidemic amongst Blacks as we have seen rich 
Black celebrities such as Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes die from degenerative 
and preventable diseases. However Blacks and Whites do have different health 
concerns and challenges. It is not because Blacks are inferior or have bad 
genes. Blacks have different diets and a large percentage of Blacks are on 
the low end of the economic bracket and do not have access to healthy foods 
(That is not to excuse bad dietary habits by Blacks). Historically, Blacks 
have also been unable to receive treatments from the medical establishment 
and have even been subject to crimes like the Tuskegee Experiment. So as a 
health researcher while researching general topics on health and wellness, I 
definitely sought to know why Blacks have a myriad of health problems. One 
of the main reasons for poor Black health is a Vitamin D deficiency. One of 
the main reasons a Vitamin D deficiency is so common in Blacks is because 
Black skin absorbs more sunlight making more it more difficult to produce 
Vitamin D. Blacks have to spend more time in the sun in order to produce 
Vitamin D. The implication of Blacks, like Michelle Obama, not having 
adequate amounts of Vitamin D are severe. My video below explains those 
consequences as it pertain to Black women ...
   I believe in keeping it real when it comes to health and we cannot act 
like race does not play when it comes to health. Blacks must also realize 
that the sick care system does not give a hoot about Black Americans and has 
traditionally been anti-Black. The existence of Black doctors means nothing. 
Black doctors operate in the same fraudulent system which has done nothing 
for Blacks and other ethnic groups for that matter. I say everyone avoid the 
sick care system (doctors, hospitals, etc) unless you have been shot, been 
stabbed or suffered some really severe incident or accident.
"""

Curtis Duncan talks in the video about why Vitamin D is not a profitable 
solution for the health care industry.

Reminds me a little of Jacques Fresco's point that scientists and engineers 
often do more for society than politicians and political systems. Not to say 
a good politician can't make a difference sometimes. :-)

Anyway, Vitamin D promotion seems to be a mostly p2p-driven meme at this point.

Maybe Vitamin D might be an good signature issue for Michelle Obama related 
to wellness and health care reform?

This Vitamin D issue affects everybody's health and happiness, whatever the 
color of your skin. From:
http://djterasaki.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/lila-watsons-quote-well-sort-of/
"If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have 
come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."

Again, a good science based source of information:
   http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

As with all health issues, no doubt there are some few people in some few 
situations where more Vitamin D is a bad idea. But for most people in our 
indoors-oriented society, it would seem to be generally important to get a 
lot more Vitamin D.

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/

Paul D. Fernhout wrote:
> Ryan Lanham wrote:
>> On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Paul D. Fernhout wrote:
>>> Glad we've found something we can agree on in this area. :-)
>>>
>>> You've probably seen this site that I stumbled across yesterday? 
>>> http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/ 
>>> http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/vitamin-d-and-h1n1-swine-flu.shtml 
>>>
>>> http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/h1n1-flu-and-vitamin-d.shtml
>>>
>>>
>> No one yet has a theory as to why Vit D works on flu. Of course it 
>> most likely is something to do with calcium channels in cells, but we 
>> don't know how or why yet. It is widely understood it has major 
>> influence on heart disease, breast cancer, bowel cancer, bone density, 
>> and several other cancers. It has emerged as sort of the "real" 
>> vitamin C...which was
>>  hyped for a decade based on Linus Pauling's early understanding of 
>> anti-oxidants and their implications. C is good too, but has nowhere near
>>  the health benefits of Vitamin D3 which if regularly supplemented 
>> would probably cut national health costs by 20% (and that number is 
>> widely circulated and discussed--some say as high as 25%). D3 is not 
>> an anti-oxidant, but rather is really best described as a hormone.
>>
>> Indeed I would go so far as to say that if an adult did no other thing to
>>  aid their health, the science suggests that taking 4000-8000 IU of 
>> gelcap (not solid) Vitamin D3 ...not D2, is about the best thing you 
>> can do for yourself and it will cost less than 1/4 of a US dollar a day.
>>
>> The blogs I read on this include Animal Pharma, hyperlipid and few others
>>  if you have any interest. Anyone interested in diabetes, Omega 3s, 
>> low carb, high saturated fat diets (especially plant based)...I'm the 
>> guy. Email me on the side. I am very current with what multiple sides 
>> are saying on these topics and there are some wonderful wonderful blogs.
> 
> === on skin color issues as they relate to Vitamin D
> 
> I hope this doesn't come across as racist, but in the USA, I've seen 
> references to the fact that people of darker skins living in the north 
> of the USA have more problems with some specific health issues 
> (including higher rates of some mental illness etc.) perhaps because of 
> this Vitamin D issue.
> 
> Basically, skin color is adapted to latitude (distance from the 
> equator). The farther north or south you are of the equator, the lighter 
> you skin should be to get more Vitamin D (as a tradeoff against 
> increased skin cancer risk and sunburn risk if you lived nearer the 
> equator with lighter skin). Of course, Vitamin D supplements and 
> sunscreen mean anyone of any skin darkness can healthily live anywhere 
> they want to (and I think they should. :-)
> 
> But if this Vitamin D issue is not understood, with pregnant mothers 
> *not* getting enough Vitamin D (and babies after birth, and the couple 
> before they conceive), it may mean lots of needless suffering for dark 
> skinned families living in more northern climates. And the problem is 
> getting worse, since everyone spends more time indoors now, so 
> presumably the Vitamin D deficiency issue is made even worse for people 
> with darker skins with continued cultural changes to spend more time 
> indoors and who may have had low levels of Vitamin D to begin with.
> 
> Clearly, something is known about this scientifically; something from 2006:
>   http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/136/4/1126
> """
> Vitamin D insufficiency is more prevalent among African Americans 
> (blacks) than other Americans and, in North America, most young, healthy 
> blacks do not achieve optimal 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] 
> concentrations at any time of year. This is primarily due to the fact 
> that pigmentation reduces vitamin D production in the skin. Also, from 
> about puberty and onward, median vitamin D intakes of American blacks 
> are below recommended intakes in every age group, with or without the 
> inclusion of vitamin D from supplements. Despite their low 25(OH)D 
> levels, blacks have lower rates of osteoporotic fractures. This may 
> result in part from bone-protective adaptations that include an 
> intestinal resistance to the actions of 1,25(OH)2D and a skeletal 
> resistance to the actions of parathyroid hormone (PTH). However, these 
> mechanisms may not fully mitigate the harmful skeletal effects of low 
> 25(OH)D and elevated PTH in blacks, at least among older individuals. 
> Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly apparent that vitamin D 
> protects against other chronic conditions, including cardiovascular 
> disease, diabetes, and some cancers, all of which are as prevalent or 
> more prevalent among blacks than whites. Clinicians and educators should 
> be encouraged to promote improved vitamin D status among blacks (and 
> others) because of the low risk and low cost of vitamin D 
> supplementation and its potentially broad health benefits."
> """
> 
> The place where I saw that first was in reference to minority families 
> in the North being blamed for abuse because of broken bones in their 
> children, when the problem may really just be rickets (Vitamin D 
> deficiency).
> "The debate: Rickets or child abuse?"
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/panorama/johnsweeney/2009/07/the_debate_rickets_or_child_ab.html 
> 
> 
> Also, is there a possibility of increased H1N1 flu severity related to 
> skin color and Vitamin D? See:
> "Cases of swine flu higher among city blacks, Hispanics"
> http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/08/18/cases_of_swine_flu_higher_among_bostons_blacks_hispanics/ 
> 
> """
> The new report about swine flu’s variable racial and ethnic impact opens 
> yet another window into a novel virus that has killed at least 447 
> across the country. But disease specialists cautioned that the 
> preliminary data from Boston provide clues but no definitive answer.
>   “It’s definitely a very important observation that we need to track,’’ 
> said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, top disease tracker at the state Department of 
> Public Health. “But we don’t want to overinterpret it until we have more 
> and better information.’’ ...
>   The Boston disease specialists found that of the 71 city residents 
> hospitalized with swine flu, 49 percent were African-American, and 28 
> percent were Hispanic. In both cases, the hospitalization rates were 
> double each group’s overall presence in Boston’s population. ...
>   The city investigators said the higher rates may also be a legacy of 
> poverty and the demands of low-wage work. Parents in such jobs, Barry 
> said, find themselves unable to stay home to care for ailing children 
> because a day away from work means a day without pay. As a result, ill 
> children are sometimes sent to school.
> """
> 
> But isn't this fascinating? The public health people say they do not 
> have a clue about why there would be any difference, and here we are 
> with one possible obvious answer. So, a simple thing like Vitamin D 
> deficiency might be leading to all sorts of racially related issues 
> which are otherwise linked to other explanations.
> 
> So, how does this move from the blogosphere to public health people 
> considering it? How can people in public health be missing stuff like 
> this? Maybe the focus on vaccination instead of nutrition or other 
> wellness aspects (like sunlight exposure) has clouded and narrowed their 
> perceptions?
> 
> Although, now that I look, I see this:
> "Despite Anti-Vitamin D Bias, CDC Stumbles on Deficiency Link to H1N1 
> Deaths"
> http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/22/Low-Vitamin-D-Increases-Flu-Death-Risk-in-Kids.aspx 
> 
> """
> So far, Swine flu, H1N1, has killed thirty-six children in U.S. and 
> analysis of CDC data indicates Vitamin D deficient children at higher 
> risk of death. The CDC did not realize they discovered this. However, 
> anyone familiar with the Vitamin D literature will recognize it. Almost 
> two-thirds of the dead children had epilepsy, cerebral palsy, or other 
> neurodevelopmental conditions like mental retardation. All of these 
> neurological conditions are associated with childhood Vitamin D 
> deficiency. Exacerbating the problem further, many of these kids take 
> anticonvulsant drugs, which lower Vitamin D levels. 58 million American 
> children are Vitamin D deficient; 7.6 million are severely deficient. 
> When researchers looked at more than 6,000 American kids (age one to 21) 
> who were carefully selected to be representative of the average American 
> child. 9 percent of the kids had 25(OH)D levels less than 15 ng/mL and 
> 70 percent had levels less than 30 ng/mL.
> """
> 
> Maybe this skin color issue is another too big kettle of worms, like 
> arguing over the science and cost-effectiveness and risk of vaccines? :-)
> 
> But clearly, the skin color issue just makes this more extreme. Everyone 
> is effected. And pediatricians can be clueless. When our child was an 
> infant, I asked my pediatrician if we should give extra Vitamin D 
> because it was winter and we live in the North, and she said not to. How 
> much was my child limited by that "advice" by a health care professional?
> 
> Anyway, here is a historic related example of possible political 
> correctness perhaps preventing the understanding of Vitamin D issues 
> (assuming this is true):
> http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/vitamin-d-and-schizophrenia.shtml
> """
> Schizophrenia more common in those with dark skin
>   Before I describe the remarkable paper from Harvard, I want to 
> compliment researchers at the Saint Barthomew's Hospital in England for 
> almost saying what most psychiatrists already know; the incidence of 
> schizophrenia is much higher in people with dark skin. In the 1970s and 
> 80s, that was an accepted fact, until charges of racism were leveled 
> against the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The spineless APA 
> promptly did retrospective chart analyses and announced the incidence of 
> schizophrenia is exactly — precisely — the same for Blacks as it is for 
> Whites. The ethnicity question is important as the Vitamin D theory is 
> not tenable unless darker skin means a higher incidence.
>   Actually, in 2007, a group at Columbia University appears to be the 
> first to break with the APA's political correctness. Dr. Michaeline 
> Bresnahan and her colleagues followed 12,000 children for up to 28 years 
> after birth. African Americans were 3 (three) times more likely to 
> develop schizophrenia than whites and socioeconomic factors could not 
> explain away their findings.
> """
> 
> Also mentioned here:
>  http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/005560.html
> "The International Journal of Epidemiology states in the study published 
> in a recent issue, that: "The data indicate substantially elevated rates 
> of schizophrenia among African Americans in comparison with whites in 
> this birth cohort"."
> 
> From:
>   http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cre/fact1.asp
> "African Americans are over-represented in high-need populations that 
> are particularly at risk for mental illnesses: ..."
> 
> Now, granted, as with any study, there can be reasons of bias in the 
> results. But, let's assume there is not for the moment, and there is a 
> genuine difference for some reason.
> 
> In the more distant past, genetic reasons were blamed for racial 
> differences, which was claimed to justify eugenics and racism. Thus the 
> emphasis to show no disparities in something like schizophrenia, even to 
> the point of redoing data or analysis, as suggested above. Still, this 
> is an odd conclusion because if you look around, there are plenty of 
> countries run for a long time by people with darker skins than most US 
> Americans, and often doing a better job of it. :-)
> 
> Now people see the issues as more social related to ongoing 
> discrimination, and as a legacy of slavery and poverty. For example, who 
> would not get depressed more often if you had to deal with 
> driving-while-black?
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_While_Black
> 
> It will be controversial to suggest Vitamin D is a big factor in any 
> differences, because, first it means admitting differences (which has 
> become politically incorrect), and then suggesting some of the 
> differences are related to a physical cause will mean other arguments 
> over other social spending being curtailed as if everything was solved 
> with some vitamins. There will also be arguments over whether, due to a 
> Vitamin D deficiency, people of darker skins in the USA may be more at 
> risk of mental issues leading to anti-social behavior, and whether that 
> would justify racial profiling. That would be potentially an explosive 
> issue. That's an issue which would be a very hard to discuss socially 
> for all sorts of reasons (including whether political correctness 
> stopped an examination of this issue that might have decades earlier led 
> to improvements in the health of people with dark skins). There are all 
> sorts of ironic twists there, and all sorts of potential for racism and 
> so on.
> 
> For the record, I advocate a basic income for everyone of any age and 
> any color, as an economic equalizer: :-)
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
> And I think the US prison system has at least ten times too many 
> prisoners than should be in there, of whatever colors:
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
> "The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate,[3][4] 
> and total documented prison population in the world.[3][5][6] As of 
> year-end 2007, a record 7.2 million people were behind bars, on 
> probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.3 million were incarcerated.[7] 
> More than 1 in 100 American adults were incarcerated at the start of 
> 2008. The People's Republic of China ranks second with 1.5 million, 
> while having four times the population, thus having only about 18% of 
> the US incarceration rate"
> 
> Still, what if not *all* the reasons for these health disparities or 
> crime disparities were socially caused by discrimination?  What if a 
> significant part of it were just such a simple thing as people with 
> darker skins living in the USA needing more Vitamin D than they get? If 
> that were true, this would be a tremendous ongoing tragedy of 
> miscommunication from political correctness and embarrassment and so on. 
> It might even involve a tremendously complex discussion of political 
> correctness sometimes harming people it was trying to help, by, as 
> above, forcing scientists to ignore obvious issues, while at the same 
> time not trying to let them off the hook when they justify racism:
>   http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=science+and+racism
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism
> 
> Still, even differences related to Vitamin D may well be considered yet 
> another continuation of the brutal legacy of slavery, from ripping 
> people from their homes and dumping them in another climate they were 
> unfamiliar with in order to exploit them. So, even if there were 
> differences in mental and physical health, including ones not fixable by 
> getting more Vitamin D now, the question of how any differences should 
> be handled is a complex one.
> 
> And maybe something too awkward for most to discuss face-to-face? :-)
> (I've been editing and re-editing this, and it still no doubt has 
> problems.)
> 
> Anyway, I don't want to suggest the USA does not have many social issues 
> that need to be resolved; it does, big ones. Though often these days 
> they are more problems of class than of race, based on this analysis by 
> a black woman:
>   "Why Anti-Racism Will Fail, by Thandeka"
>   http://archive.uua.org/ga/ga99/238thandeka.html
> 
> But, what if Vitamin D were an aspect of all this, anyway?
> 
> It's controversial to suggest people with darker skins in the USA are 
> statistically suffering more physical and mental issues of specific 
> types from birth, because that in turn might become fuel for 
> discrimination, including claims of bad genes or bad culture or bad 
> attitude and so on. That is of course not my intent, even as I raise the 
> issue of differences. So, it's a difficult issue to address, to even 
> admit to any disparities related to skin color.
> 
> Still, I bring it up anyway despite that risk because I don't want to 
> see anyone of any color denied their potential because of such a simple 
> and cheap thing like Vitamin D pills if that should prove important 
> (and, if this research on Vitamin D is to be believed, it is, very 
> important).
> 
> Related:
>   http://www.dignitarians.org/
> """
> The Dignitarian Foundation is an organization dedicated to promoting and 
> protecting the intrinsic right to human dignity - the belief that as a 
> person, one is automatically worthy, honorable, and deserving of 
> respect, regardless of status, station or stage of life. We believe we 
> can and must find alternatives to practices that harm individual 
> dignity, instead of continuing to convey the toxic residue of these 
> indignities down the line, from those with the most power to those with 
> the least. Our mission is to overturn the consensus view that says it is 
> acceptable to treat certain people and groups badly because other people 
> are doing it or because you can get away with it. We invite you to join 
> us in raising awareness within families, schools, workplaces and 
> governments of the enormous personal and public costs arising from 
> everyday insults to dignity. Collectively, we can dissolve unhealthy 
> power imbalances and begin to create societies that not only 
> acknowledge, but also actively celebrate, the inherent dignity in everyone.
> """
> 
> Also related:
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankism
> 
> Is this maybe Vitamin D deficiency some well known thing in, say, by 
> most African Americans in the USA already?
>   http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q="african+american"+vitamin+d
> 
> Example from this year, showing how this issue is heating up:
> "Your Health: Skin color matters in the vitamin D debate"
> http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/painter/2009-04-19-your-health_N.htm
> """
>   Can dark skin be a health hazard? It might be — if you are a 
> dark-skinned person who lives far from the equator, gets little sun 
> exposure and consumes little vitamin D.
>   Just how much vitamin D Americans need and how they should get it is 
> under debate. Scientists also are debating evidence that vitamin D, best 
> known for building bones, can lower the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart 
> disease and other ailments.
>   And they are asking this intriguing question: Could varying vitamin D 
> levels contribute to the health gap between black and white Americans?
>   ...
>   John Flack, principal investigator at the Center for Urban and African 
> American Health at Wayne State University, Detroit, says: "I think it's 
> potentially a very important explanation for some of the differences, 
> from hypertension to cancer to heart failure. The actual proof is not 
> there, but it's plausible."
>   But Flack adds that many factors contribute to African Americans' 
> poorer health. Studies suggest those factors include reduced access to 
> health care, pervasive barriers to healthful living (for example, 
> neighborhoods that lack fresh groceries), differences in income and 
> education and the stress of racial inequality itself.
>   Solving those problems will be difficult, he says. Closing the vitamin 
> D gap could be easier.
>   It won't be as easy as recommending more sun exposure, however. Though 
> someone in Boston with pale skin can get adequate vitamin D by exposing 
> their arms and legs to the sun for 10 to 15 minutes twice a week in the 
> summer, someone with the darkest skin might need two hours of exposure 
> each time, Holick says. "It's impractical," he says, and it also darkens 
> skin, which many people find cosmetically unacceptable.
>   Dermatologists also warn that sun exposure increases the risk of skin 
> cancer and wrinkling, even in dark-skinned people. ...
> """
> 
> Anyway, lots of cans of worms here.
> 
> And obviously, there are nutritional issues that have nothing to do with 
> race but may have everything to do with poverty or culture, like getting 
> enough Omega-3 fatty acids or various other nutrients. So, there are all 
> sorts of interactions in the USA between race, class, poverty, 
> discrimination, and health. So, there is unlikely to be just one issue 
> that explains everything, even if this Vitamin D issues may be important.
> 
> If there is any truth to too little Vitamin D leading to more physical 
> and mental problems, and that this may have affected the African 
> American experience in the USA negatively, then African Americans have 
> been the "canary in the coal mine" of vitamin D deficiency in the USA? 
> And, maybe there will eventually need to be a deep rethinking of many 
> aspects of US history? And even, one can wonder what to make of the fact 
> that President Obama (who just won a Nobel Peace Prize today) was 
> conceived and raised as a young boy in sunny Hawaii? What would the USA 
> have been like if more people with dark skins could have reached their 
> potential? How many more "peace prizes" would the USA have won?
> 
> From:
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Negro_College_Fund
> """
> In 1972, the UNCF adopted, as its motto, the maxim, "A mind is a 
> terrible thing to waste." This maxim has become one of the most widely 
> recognized slogans in advertising history.
> """
> 
> Could a few hundred dollars worth of Vitamin D during pregnancy and in 
> childhood per dark skinned mother and baby made a bigger difference than 
> many thousands of dollars spent later on college? Difficult questions to 
> explore? And was political correctness the reason this was not 
> understood decades ago?
> 
> Still, the first three years (four including pregnancy) are very 
> important for any child of any skin color:
>   http://www.zerotothree.org/
> "We welcome you to ZERO TO THREE’s website. ZERO TO THREE is a national 
> nonprofit organization that informs, trains and supports professionals, 
> policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of 
> infants and toddlers."
> 
> And, it's hard to know if Vitamin D really would make such a big 
> difference compared to other things? No doubt, this will be a 
> contentious issue for years to come.
>   http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
> 
> Anyway, it seems like almost everyone needs more Vitamin D. As we all 
> spend more time indoors in front of screens, it would seem that skin 
> color won't matter much, and we will all need to take the same amount of 
> Vitamin D supplements, whatever our skin color. :-)
> 
> Perhaps this need for Vitamin D supplements will more and more even 
> include people with dark skins living near the equator and spending more 
> and more time indoors?
> 
> Anyway, a big, big can of worms for all sorts of reasons.
> 
> --Paul Fernhout
> http://www.pdfernhout.net/
> 
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