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

[Paul D. Fernhout]

Just sent a note on this to the White House, via their public email form.

Not saying it won't be ignored, but sometimes the easiest things are worth 
trying first. :-)

Text below:

===

Policy Comment on Health Care

There is a growing awareness that Vitamin D deficiency may have serious 
health impacts, especially among African Americans. Increasing the amount of 
Vitamin D a person gets through more sunlight exposure or supplements may 
reduce a variety of illnesses including the flu. This may be an important 
signature issue that Michelle Obama could help with.

Related links:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/
http://curtisduncan.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-michelle-obama-is-more-likely-to.html
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2009-October/005047.html

Anyway, this is a note from a Princeton classmate of Michelle (we're both 
class of 1985). I hope it can help prevent illness among many people and 
allow many more people to live a long life of abundance and joy.

All the best in continuing to work towards world peace and prosperity.

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."

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

Paul D. Fernhout wrote:
> 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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