Sunlight, vitamin D and
African Americans, Part 2
In my previous post, I discussed reasons to
believe that the generally poor health of African Americans is due
in large part to vitamin deficiency.
Here are more reasons to believe that the need for
vitamin D is critical among this population.
1. Heart disease is twice as prevalent among black men as white
men.[1] Although part of the discrepancy may be due to more smoking
among black men, it is probable that a significant part is due to
vitamin D deficiency. Low sun exposure and low vitamin D levels
correlate to increased inflammation, higher cholesterol and
hypertension, all risk factors for heart disease.
2. Heart failure is also much more common among blacks[2]—not
surprising since we know the efficacy of vitamin D in preventing
heart failure.
Now let’s discuss what is perhaps the most important study for
African Americans. It is often argued that the excessive rates of
cancer, diabetes, hypertension, etc. among African Americans are due
to lack of access to health care.
If that were the case, black physicians would have
approximately the same lower rates of disease as their white
counterparts, since black physicians obviously have high access to
health care.
However, research shows that even black physicians
have a much higher incidence of cancer than their white
counterparts.[3] But when black physicians have habits that provide
higher vitamin D levels, they have approximately the same cancer
rates as white physicians.
Had the rates of heart disease, diabetes,
hypertension and other diseases also been studied, along with
measurements of serum vitamin D levels, I believe the pattern would
have been even more clearly established.
Since African Americans have only 50-75% of the serum levels of
vitamin D as whites,5 part—perhaps a large part—of the discrepancy
between the health of the races could be rectified by nothing more
than vitamin D supplementation of about 5,000 IU daily. That is very
good news indeed!
[1] USA Department of Health and Human Services 1998. Tobacco Use
Among USA Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups — African Americans,
American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders, and Hispanics: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta:
USA Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
[2] American Heart Association. Heart and stroke statistics – 2004
update.
[3] Giovannucci, E. et al. Cancer Incidence and Mortality and
Vitamin D in Black and White Male Health Professionals: Cancer
Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15:2467–72. |
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