Chart of Vitamin D levels vs race - April 2013

Chart had been from Vitamin D Council (ceased operation ~2017)

Vitamin D vs Race at is.gd/vitD_race


Vitamin d status is a biological determinant of health disparities.

J Acad Nutr Diet. 2013 May;113(5):643-51. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2012.12.011. Epub 2013 Feb 13.
Weishaar T, jtw2117@columbia.edu, Vergili JM.
 Download the PDF from sci-hub via VitaminDWiki

BACKGROUND: In human beings, dark skin requires more exposure to ultraviolet light to synthesize the same amount of vitamin D as lighter skin. It is has been repeatedly shown that at the latitude of the United States there are vitamin D disparities related to skin color. Although inadequate vitamin D status and health disparities have been associated with many of the same diseases, neither nutrition policy nor public health policy in the United States currently recognizes any role at all for vitamin D as a determinant of health disparities.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the relationship between health, skin color, and vitamin D nutriture in the US population.

DESIGN: The design is cross-sectional, correlational, and can be generalized to the population of the United States.

PARTICIPANTS: We used data from 12,505 (unweighted) subjects (3,402 non-Hispanic blacks, 3,143 Mexican Americans, and 5,960 non-Hispanic whites), aged 13 years or older, from the continuous National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2006.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Self-rated health, a repeatedly validated indicator of objective health status, was used as a continuous measure of health.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED: Using software appropriate for the complex survey design of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the study consisted of six regression models, one predicting vitamin D status and five predicting self-rated health.

RESULTS: Controlling for the covariates sex, interview language, country of birth, tobacco use, age, body mass index, and leisure exercise as well as the socioeconomic variables education and family income, remaining disparities in self-rated health are greatly reduced or eliminated by controlling for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.

CONCLUSIONS: We found that socioeconomic factors are the strongest determinant of skin-color based health disparities in the US population, but that it may not be possible to eliminate health disparities in the United States without eliminating the skin-color-related disparities in vitamin D nutriture.

References

  1. US Department of Health and Human Services . Healthy People 2020 . http://www.healthypeople.gov/ Accessed January 15, 2011
  2. Shavers VL . Measurement of socioeconomic status in health disparities research . J Natl Med Assoc . 2007;99(9):1013–1023
  3. Adler NE , Rehkopf DH . US disparities in health: Descriptions, causes, and mechanisms . Annu Rev Public Health . 2008;29:235–252
  4. Xanthos C , Treadwell HM , Holden KB . Social determinants of health among African-American men . J Mens Health . 2010;7(1):11–19
  5. Murray FG . Pigmentation, sunlight, and nutritional disease . Am Anthropol . 1934;36(3):438–445
  6. Loomis WF . Skin-pigment regulation of vitamin-D biosynthesis in man . Science . 1967;157(3788):501–506
  7. Jablonski NG , Chaplin G . The evolution of human skin coloration . J Hum Evol . 2000;39(1):57–106
  8. Jablonski NG . The evolution of human skin and skin color . Annu Rev Anthropol . 2004;33:585–623
  9. Chaplin G , Jablonski NG . Vitamin D and the evolution of human depigmentation . Am J Phys Anthropol . 2009;139(4):451–461
  10. Yuen AWC , Jablonski NG . Vitamin D: In the evolution of human skin colour . Med Hypotheses . 2010;74(1):39–44
  11. Maclaughlin JA , Anderson RR , Holick MF . Spectral character of sunlight modulates photosynthsis of previtamin-D3 and its photoisomers in human skin . Science . 1982;216(4549):1001–1003
  12. Johnson FS , Mo T , Green AES . Average latitudinal variation in ultraviolet-radiation at earth's surface . Photochem Photobiol . 1976;23(3):179–188
  13. Luxwolda MF , Kuipers RS , Kema IP , Janneke Dijck-Brouwer DA , Muskiet FA . Traditionally living populations in East Africa have a mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration of 115 nmol/L . Br J Nutr . 2012;1–5
  14. Haddad JG . Competitive protein-binding radioassay for 25-hydroxycholecalciferol . J Clin Endocrinol Metab . 1971;33(6):992–995
  15. Morton JP , Iqbal Z , Drust B , Burgess D , Close GL , Brukner PD . Seasonal variation in vitamin D status in professional soccer players of the English Premier League . Appl Physiol Nutr Metab . 2012;37(4):798–802
  16. Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board . Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D . Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2011;
  17. Scragg R . Seasonality of cardiovascular-disease mortality and the possible protective effect of UV-radiation . Int J Epidemiol . 1981;10(4):337–341
  18. Rostand SG . Ultraviolet light may contribute to geographic and racial blood pressure differences . Hypertension . 1997;30(2):150–156
  19. Scragg R , Sowers M , Bell C . Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, ethnicity, and blood pressure in the third national health and nutrition examination survey . Am J Hypertens . 2007;20(7):713–719
  20. Melamed ML , Astor B , Michos ED , Hostetter TH , Powe NR , Muntner P . 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, race, and the progression of kidney disease . J Am Soc Nephrol . 2009;20(12):2631–2639
  21. Fuller KE . Health disparities: Reframing the problem . Med Sci Monit . 2003;9(3):SR9–SR15
  22. Harris SS . Vitamin D and African Americans . J Nutr . 2006;136(4):1126–1129
  23. Bibuld D . Health disparities and vitamin D . Clin Rev Bone Min Metab . 2009;7(1):63–76
  24. Grant WB , Peiris AN . Possible role of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in black-white health disparities in the United States . J Am Med Dir Assoc . 2010;11(9):617–628
  25. Egan KM , Signorello LB , Munro HM , Hargreaves MK , Hollis BW , Blot WJ . Vitamin D insufficiency among African-Americans in the southeastern United States: Implications for cancer disparities (United States) . Cancer Causes Control . 2008;19(5):527–535
  26. Ginde AA , Liu MC , Camargo CA . Demographic differences and trends of vitamin D insufficiency in the US population, 1988-2004 . Arch Intern Med . 2009;169(6):626–632
  27. Peiris AN , Bailey BA , Peiris P , Copeland RJ , Manning T . Race and vitamin D status and monitoring in male veterans . J Natl Med Assoc . 2011;103(6):492–497
  28. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data. 2001-2006 . http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm Accessed September 26, 2011
  29. Idler EL , Benyamini Y . Self-rated health and mortality: A review of twenty-seven community studies . J Health Social Behav . 1997;38(1):21–37
  30. Miilunpalo S , Vuori I , Oja P , Pasanen M , Urponen H . Self-rated health status as a health measure: The predictive value of self-reported health status on the use of physician services and on mortality in the working-age population . J Clin Epidemiol . 1997;50(5):517–528
  31. Benyamini Y , Idler EL . Community studies reporting association between self-rated health and mortality—Additional studies, 1995 to 1998 . Res Aging . 1999;21(3):392–401
  32. Nelson DE , Holtzman D , Bolen J , Stanwyck CA , Mack KA . Reliability and validity of measures from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) . Soz Praventivmed . 2001;46:S3–S42
  33. US Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics . Analytical note for NHANES 2000-2006 and NHANES III (1988-1994) 25-Hydroxyvitamin D analysis . www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes3/VitaminD_analyticnote.pdf Accessed November 19, 2010
  34. Lumley T . Complex Surveys: A Guide to Analysis Using R . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons; 2010;
  35. Lumley T . Analysis of complex survey samples . J Stat Software . 2004;9(1):1–19
  36. US Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics . NHANES analytic and reporting guidelines 2005-2006 . http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes_03_04/nhanes_analytic_guidelines_dec_2005.pdf Accessed October 2, 2009
  37. Holick MF . Vitamin D deficiency . N Engl J Med . 2007;357(3):266–281
  38. Holick MF , Binkley NC , Bischoff-Ferrari HA , et al. Evaluation, treatment, and prevention of vitamin D deficiency: An Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline . J Clin Endocrinol Metab . 2011;96(7):1911–1930
  39. Terry L . Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service. Public Health Service Publication No. 1103 . Washington, DC: US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; 1964;
  40. Looker AC , Pfeiffer CM , Lacher DA , Schleicher RL , Picciano MF , Yetley EA . Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status of the US population: 1988-1994 compared with 2000-2004 . Am J Clin Nutr . 2008;88(6):1519–1527
  41. Jylha M , Guralnik JM , Ferrucci L , Jokela J , Heikkinen E . Is self-rated health comparable across cultures and genders? . J Gerontol Series B-Psychol Sci Soc Sci . 1998;53(suppl 3):S144–S152
  42. Dowd JB , Zajacova A . Does self-rated health mean the same thing across socioeconomic groups? (Evidence from biomarker data) . Ann Epidemiol . 2010;20(10):743–749
  43. Morris HA , Anderson PH . Autocrine and paracrine actions of vitamin D . Clin Biochem Rev Austral Assoc Clin Biochem . 2010;31(4):129–138

Vitamin D status indicators in indigenous populations in East Africa.

Eur J Nutr. 2013 Apr;52(3):1115-25. doi: 10.1007/s00394-012-0421-6. Epub 2012 Aug 10.
Luxwolda MF, Kuipers RS, Kema IP, van der Veer E, Dijck-Brouwer DA, Muskiet FA.
Laboratory Medicine, Room Y 3.181, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), P.O. Box 30.001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands. mfluxwolda@hotmail.com
 Download the PDF from sci-hub via VitaminDWiki

PURPOSE:Sufficient vitamin D status may be defined as the evolutionary established circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] matching our Paleolithic genome.

METHODS:We studied serum 25(OH)D [defined as 25(OH)D2 + 25(OH)D3] and its determinants in 5 East African ethnical groups across the life cycle: Maasai (MA) and Hadzabe (HA) with traditional life styles and low fish intakes, and people from Same (SA; intermediate fish), Sengerema (SE; high fish), and Ukerewe (UK; high fish). Samples derived from non-pregnant adults (MA, HA, SE), pregnant women (MA, SA, SE), mother-infant couples at delivery (UK), infants at delivery and their lactating mothers at 3 days (MA, SA, SE), and lactating mothers at 3 months postpartum (SA, SE). Erythrocyte docosahexaenoic acid (RBC-DHA) was determined as a proxy for fish intake.

RESULTS:The mean ± SD 25(OH)D of non-pregnant adults and cord serum were 106.8 ± 28.4 and 79.9 ± 26.4 nmol/L, respectively. Pregnancy, delivery, ethnicity (which we used as a proxy for sunlight exposure), RBC-DHA, and age were the determinants of 25(OH)D. 25(OH)D increased slightly with age. RBC-DHA was positively related to 25(OH)D, notably 25(OH)D2. Pregnant MA (147.7 vs. 118.3) and SE (141.9 vs. 89.0) had higher 25(OH)D than non-pregnant counterparts (MA, SE). Infant 25(OH)D at delivery in Ukerewe was about 65 % of maternal 25(OH)D.

CONCLUSIONS:Our ancient 25(OH)D amounted to about 115 nmol/L and sunlight exposure, rather than fish intake, was the principal determinant. The fetoplacental unit was exposed to high 25(OH)D, possibly by maternal vitamin D mobilization from adipose tissue, reduced insulin sensitivity, trapping by vitamin D-binding protein, diminished deactivation, or some combination.

PMID: 22878781


Short url = http://is.gd/vitD_race

See also VitaminDWiki

Blacks 10X more likely  to be deficient -2008
Blacks in the US 10X more likely to be vitamin D deficient ( < 17.8 ng)

34080 visitors, last modified 28 Dec, 2021,
Printer Friendly Follow this page for updates