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

Sat Oct 10 20:26:32 CEST 2009

There is no doubt about what you write.  Some have even speculated it
completely explains statistical analyses that show, ceteris paribus, that
people of African descent in the US are more unhealthy than their peers by
income, education, etc.  It may well be Vit D deficiency.

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 9:44 PM, Paul D. Fernhout <
pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> 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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-- 
Ryan Lanham
rlanham1963 at gmail.com
Facebook: Ryan_Lanham
P.O. Box 633
Grand Cayman, KY1-1303
Cayman Islands
(345) 916-1712
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