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Minneapolis Urban League expects that African descendants and other people of color will raise the standard of health for their communities.

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Many Black Men in Cold Climates Lack Vitamin D

By Randy Dotinga (Friday, September 23, 2011/HealthDay News)

People's bodies build up vitamin D through exposure to sunlight, But a new study suggests black men who live in areas of the United States with low sunlight are more likely to have vitamin D deficiency than whites who live in the same places.

The researchers say the findings show that current vitamin D recommendations need to change. "This study shows that across-the-board vitamin D recommendations just won't work for everybody," said study researcher Dr. Adam B. Murphy, clinical instructor in the department of urology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in an American Association for Cancer Research news release.

"With so many diseases linked to low levels of vitamin D, we should have more stratified recommendations to consider groups within the population instead of making monolithic suggestions," he said.

The researchers studied vitamin D levels in 492 men aged 40 to 79 who live in Chicago, an area of the country that gets a low level of ultraviolet radiation. More than 90 percent of black men were deficient compared to 69.7 percent of white men.

Murphy said the skin of black men reacts differently than that of white men to the sun, explaining why their bodies may produce less vitamin D.

Deficiencies of the vitamin put people at higher risk of diseases like prostate cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

"Because we have a lot of special populations in the United States -- people who have darker skin, people who cover their skin for religious reasons and people who live in poor sunlight environments -- there shouldn't be uniform vitamin D recommendations for the entire population," Murphy said.

The study was scheduled to be released this week at the American Association for Cancer Research Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, in Washington D.C.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

SOURCE: American Association for Cancer Research, news release, Sept. 20, 2011

HealthDay

Learn more about health disparities in the United States

Read the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

Topics in Health Disparities
On Monday, April 25, 2011 Today’s Topics in Health Disparities webcast examined the new Department of Health and Human Services’ Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

The program addressed the contents of the strategy and its timeline for implementation as well as its implications for providers. The panelists also discussed how the new strategy relates to other recently released HHS strategies including the National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care, the National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy, the Healthy People 2020 initiative and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States. Panelists also considered what the strategy’s role as it relates to health reform implementation.