Chart of Vitamin D levels vs race

Created June 2013

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

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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, [email protected], Vergili JM.

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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.

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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. [email protected]

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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 Vitamin D Life

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

Tags: Africa Darker Skin