Overview Dark Skin and Vitamin D

FACT - - People with dark skins have more health problems and higher mortality rate than those with light skins
FACT - - People with dark skins have low levels of vitamin D
FACT - - People with light skins who have low vitamin D have health problems
OBSERVATION - - The health problems of whites with low level of vitamin D are similar to those with dark skins
CONCLUSION - - People with dark skins have more health problems due to low levels of vitamin D
African American Health Disparities are associated with low Vitamin D - Grant Feb 2021
Low Vitamin D increases health problems - independent of skin color

Dark Skin studies: Pregnancy (28 studies),  Genetics (13 studies),  Vitamin D Binding Protein (8 studies),  Vitamin D Receptor (7 studies),  Diabetes (24 studies),   Cardiovascular (18 studies),  Mortality (12 studies), Intervention (16 studies) Click here to see the studies

Increased Death Rate with Dark Skin- - - - - - -

• Dark-skinned children 3.4 X more likely to die after surgery than white skinned children NYT July 20, 2020
  • reporting on a study in Pediatrics "Race, Postoperative Complications, and Death in Apparently Healthy Children" The word VITAMIN does not occur once in the study
• Do blacks have a 5 year life penalty due to low vitamin D from JAMA 2007
  Heart Disease 1.3 years, HIV 0.6 years, Perinatal death 0.5 years, Stroke 0.4 years, Lung cancer 0.3 years,
  Other cancer 0.3 years, Diabetes 0.3 years, Prostate cancer 0.3 years, Septicemia 0.2 years,
  Hypertension 0.2 years, Nephritis 0.2 years, Homicide 1.0 years-Depression ?
  Unintentional injuries 0.4 years (drugs, autos, falls)
• Lack of vitamin D closely associated with black health disparities – Nov 2010 which includes:
  Cardiovascular disease, Congestive heart failure, Chronic kidney disease, Cognitive impairment
  Glucose metabolism, Peripheral arterial disease, End-stage renal disease, Diabetes
  Cancer, Breast cancer, Colorectal cancer, Influenza, common cold, Sepsis, All-cause mortality rate
• Black die younger than whites 2021
  • 

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Chart of Vitamin D levels vs race - April 2013 has the following

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The Black/White survival discrepancy peaks at age 78: chronic illness

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US vitamin D deficiency vs skin color details were reported by CDC March 2012

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Amount of vitamin D deficiency depends on amount of African-American blood (genes)

CLICK HERE for more information
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The health disparity for dark skinned people is almost the same as whites having a low level of vitamin D

	Black vs White	White - low D vs White - high D
breast cancer	1.34	1.26
colorectal cancer	1.43	1.44
cardiovascular disease	1.29	1.27
all-cause mortality	1.26	1.26

CLICK HERE for details, Dr. Grant
Blacks die more often than whites of many diseases (they have less vitamin D) – 2012 contains the following summary
Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans Cancer.org

• “African Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial and ethnic group in the US for most cancers”
• Has a huge number of tables and charts, Note: Vitamin D is not mentioned

Leading Causes of Death as of March 2018

All Ages Death rate	Black	White	Ratio
Heart diseases	217	171	1.27
Cancer	199	170	1.17
Cerebrovascular diseases	51	36	1.4
Diabetes	40	19	2.0

Rates per 100,000    Age adjusted   Non-Hispanic

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Skin - Dark category listing has 460 items along with related searches

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Diabetes and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Pregnancy and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Women and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Breast Cancer and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Rickets and Dark Skin- - - - - 

Hypertension and Dark Skin- - - 

Stroke and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Obesity and Dark Skin - - - - - - -

Kidney and Dark Skin - - - - - - 

Multiple Sclerosis and Dark Skin - - 

Mortality and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Cardiovascular and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Infant-Child and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Youths and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Pain and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Intervention and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Genes and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Vitamin D Binding Protein and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

Vitamin D Receptor and Dark Skin- - - - - - - 

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See also at VitaminDWiki - Dark Skin

• Many healthy African Americans got above 33 ng with 4,000 IU of vitamin D – RCT March 2014
• Low Vitamin D with dark skin, even if live closer to equator and higher altitude – Feb 2013
• US Minorities have poor health – how much is due to little sun – Feb 2013
• Blacks had lower vitamin D and more quantifiable pain than whites with knee osteoarthritis – Nov 2012
• Forearm fracture 3.5X more often in black children with low levels of vitamin D – Sept 2012
• Extra 4,000 IU daily raised the vitamin D levels of blacks to that of whites – July 2012
• Dark skin does not generate as much vitamin D from the same amount of UV – Nov 2011
• The darker the skin the less the vitamin D – July 2010
• Vitamin D insufficiency in UK youths – 37X more likely if dark skin – July 2011
• Blacks born in Africa and moved to US had 27X higher rate of TB than people born in the US 2000-2009
• All items in Skin Color and vitamin D 460 items
• Human skin pigmentation, migration and disease susceptibility – Mar 2012
• 88 % of African immigrants to Melbourne had < 20 ng of vitamin D
• Black veterans have worse health and low vitamin D, yet are not tested as much – June 2011
• Black members of Adventist church have improved health defy health recommends 30 minutes daily sun
• Dark skin people in Norway 2X more deficient and have 3X more headaches if low on vitamin D
• Vitamin D Genes varied seasonally with European but not Asian ancestors – June 2011
• Second generation dark skinned immigrants live shorter lives wonder why
• Somali did not have a word for autism before getting to Canada Vitamin D Council
• Low vitamin D before orthopedic surgery – dark skin 5X more likely – Oct 2010
• Videos: Black doctor 6 minutes  CNN Dr. Gupta  Dr. Sorenson 1 minute
• Race vs vitamin D level - Veith May 2011 has the following chart

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Teens increasingly indoors 8.5 hours white, 13 hours dark skin

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Vitamin D Supplementation in Young White and African American Women, Jan 2014

PDF is attached at the bottom of this page
White Women

African American Women

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See also on the Web

• Little variation in vitamin D levels with skin color in Brazil – July 2014 - a different conclusion
• Health Disparities Experienced by Black or African Americans by CDC - US
• Office on Minority Health US
  includes Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, HIV/AIDS, Immunization, Infant Mortality, and Stroke
• Black Women's Health Imperative
• Healthy Black Men
• Black Doctor
• Women's Health for African-Americans US
• Black Health Zone
• LA Times June 2012 based on 4 year old data (2008)
  A black baby boy will die 5.4 years earlier than white boy
  A black baby girl will die 3.7 years earlier than white girl.
  The life expectancy for black men 70.8 years, vs 76.2 years for white men
  The life expectancy for black women 77.5 years, vs 80.3 years for white women.
• When should medicine talk about race? Part 2: Seven guidelines Scientific American Aug 2012 - no mention of vitamin D
  Summarizes a JAMA publication of 2003
• African American Community Mental Health 2012? 1 page, has the following
  Across a recent 15-year span, suicide rates increased 233 % among African Americans aged 10-14 compared to 120 % among similar Caucasian Americans
• The vitamin D RDA for African American adults: higher than that for white persons?
  Am J Clin Nutr 2014 ajcn.082271; First published online January 22, 2014. Editorial by Cashman KD, no abstract available
  Search VitaminDWiki for KD Cashman 84 items as of Jan 2014
• People with dark skins should not have to wear sunscreen all the time July 2014
  She says that the Surgeon General and CDC recommend sunscreen ALL of the time for ALL Americans

Dark skins (less vitamin d) = more Alzheimer's

• Good description of Discrimination based on skin color WikiPedia
  skin bleaching was a $28 billion/year market in 2008
• White skin - Neanderthal inheritance Dr. Grimes & New Scientist April 2014

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