Health Quiz

[tedhutchinson]

1. Blacks are about ten times more likely to be vitamin D deficient than are whites.

a) true

b) false

2. The incidence of vitamin D deficiency among black women of reproductive age is:

a) twice as high for blacks as whites

b) four times as high

c) ten times as high

d) twenty times as high

3. On the average, young white women of childbearing age have twice as much vitamin D in their blood as young black women.

a) true

b) false

4. The following diseases are:

a) associated with vitamin D deficiency.

b) more common among African Americans.

c) both.

• coronary heart disease

• hypertension

• type two diabetes

• colorectal cancer

• prostate cancer

• cervical cancer

• end stage renal disease

• metabolic syndrome

• multiple sclerosis

• rheumatoid conditions

• obesity

• periodontal disease

• rickets

• osteomalacia

5. Vitamin D deficiency in African American mothers may explain the fact that black babies are more than twice as likely as whites to have low-birth-weights.

a) true

b) false

6. Eighty-three percent of American children diagnosed with vitamin D deficient rickets in the last 17 years were African Americans.

a) true

b) false

7. Professor John McGrath recently documented that vitamin D is crucial for brain development.

a) true

b) false

8. Breast milk of black women often has undetectable levels of vitamin D. With adequate supplementation, breast milk can easily be transformed into a rich source of vitamin D.

a) true

b) false

9. Blacks consume much less fresh milk than do whites

a) true

b) false

10. Under current FDA regulations, the only foods mandated to contain vitamin D are milk products.

a) true

b) false

11. The FDA knows that vitamin D deficiency may explain a significant part of the excesses mortality in the black community.

a) true

b) false

12. The FDA also knows blacks do not drink much milk and are not getting as much supplemental vitamin D as whites.

a) true

b) false

13. When did we discover that vitamin D deficiency is much worse among African Americans and that the FDA’s food fortification program is shortchanging African Americans?

a) over the last twenty years

b) during the last four years.

[tedhutchinson]

1. Blacks are about ten times more likely to be vitamin D deficient than are whites.

a) true

b) false

The answer is true. Of course, it all depends on how you define vitamin D deficiency but the problem is much more severe in the black community. The reason is simple:

humans get most of their vitamin D from the sun and blacks need up to ten times longer in the sun to produce the same amount of vitamin D as whites.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Dec;80(6 Suppl):1763S-6S.

J Clin Invest. 1985 Aug;76(2):470-3.



Choose Your Cover: Sun Exposure Questions and Answers if you look at official guidance does this reflect the need for people with coloured skins to keep from being Vitamin D3 deficient?

[tedhutchinson]

2. The incidence of vitamin D deficiency among black women of reproductive age is:

a) twice as high for blacks as whites

b) four times as high

c) ten times as high

d) twenty times as high

The answer is d, twenty times as high. Twelve percent of young black women had 25(OH)D levels below 20nm/L (8 ng/ml) while only 0.5% of whites had such levels. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002 Jul;76(1):187-92.

Now consider if the information given here isn't racist as it fails to draw attention to the need of those with dark/coloured skins to obtain appropriate levels of Vitamin D3 from free exposure to sunlight.

Sunlight and Ultraviolet Radition (American Cancer Society)

By ensuring that the wrong advice is given to those with dark or coloured skins their levels of vitamin d3 and health prospects will inevitably be worse than for your white population. Similarly we know that higher levels of vitamin d3 lead to higher levels of Omega 3 and higher levels of omega in the brain lead to greater intelligence and lower levels of violence.

Sunlight Robbery - Health Research Forum

[tedhutchinson]

3. On the average, young white women of childbearing age have twice as much vitamin D in their blood as young black women.

a) true

b) false

The answer is true.

Am J Clin Nutr. 1998 Jun;67(6):1232-6.

The importance of this is far more significant when you understand how the presence Vitamin d is essential for the passage of DHA through the brain cell wall to be incorporated into the actual brain cell structure.

ChangingDiets, Changing Minds: how food affects mental well being and behaviour sets it out in greater detail from which I quote"During pregnancy, over 600 grams of EFAs are transferred from the mother to the foetus – the type of fats that can only be gained from dietary sources – at an average of 2.2 grams per day. Specifically, it is DHA and AA (the major structural EFAs in the brain - see chapter 1) that are selectively transferred by the placenta to the foetus. Apparently, little conversion of essential fatty acids takes place in the womb.

The EFA status of a foetus is intimately related to that of its mother. If the EFAs are not available from the mother’s diet, the placenta will take them from the mother’s body. Accordingly, the mother’s EFA status – particularly her level of DHA - decreases throughout the pregnancy. This transfer of DHA greatly increases during the third trimester, the same time that the foetus’ brain is growing rapidly.

If you read the alarmist hype here Health Effects of Overexposure to the Sun (Environmental Protection Agency) You would not appreciate that for coloured and black skinned individuals it is even more important than it is for whites to obtain skin exposure to sunlight every day of the year and PARTICULARLY during pregnancy. Without the presence of Vitamin d3 cholecalciferol, brains either of pregnant/lactating mothers and DEVELOPING FOETUS' cannot fully benefit from the availability of OMEGA 3 essential fatty acids.

I am not suggesting that overexposure to sunlight and getting sunburnt or even suntanned is a good idea, but it is important that the current Vitamin D3 Cholecalciferol deficiency epidemic is ended as soon as possible and people, particularly those with Brown or Black skins are encouraged rather than discouraged into spending MORE time outdoors than they do currently.

[tedhutchinson]

4. The following diseases are:

a) associated with vitamin D deficiency.

b) more common among African Americans.

c) both.

• coronary heart disease

• hypertension

• type two diabetes

• colorectal cancer

• prostate cancer

• cervical cancer

• end stage renal disease

• metabolic syndrome

• multiple sclerosis

• rheumatoid conditions

• obesity

• periodontal disease

• rickets

• osteomalacia

The answer is both. With the exception of osteoporosis, the list of diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency and the list of diseases more common among African Americans are virtually identical. Osteoporosis, the exception that proves the rule, is a multifactorial disease whose main determinate is peak bone mass during puberty.

The law of parsimony (one explanation for multiple findings is better than multiple explanations for multiple findings) suggests the high rate of vitamin D deficiency among African Americans explains at least part of excessive disease and mortality among African Americans.

Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Control, American Public Health Association, Second Edition, 1998

CA Cancer J Clin. 2005 Jan-Feb;55(1):10-30.

J Cardiovasc Risk. 2002 Dec;9(6):323-30.

J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2003 Nov-Dec;5(6):393-401.

J Public Health Policy. 2004;25(3-4):353-66.

Am J Public Health. 2004 Sep;94(9):1496-500.

Dent Clin North Am. 2003 Jan;47(1):103-14, x.

Mult Scler. 2003 Jun;9(3):293-8.

J Rheumatol. 2004 Sep;31(9):1823-8.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Mar;79(3):362-71.

Is the

American Cancer Society racist in not making it clear that their misleading advice to white people is even more misleading dangerous for those with coloured or black skins.

These findings suggest that in vitro UVB-induced mutagen sensitivity reflects susceptibility to non-malignant skin cancer, but not cutaneous malignant melanoma,

According to Dr. Holick in his book The UV Advantage



Non-melanoma skin cancer, which may be caused by long-term sun exposure, has an extremely low death rate. Fewer than half of one percent of people who develop non-melanoma skin cancer die; non-melanoma skin cancer claims 1,200 lives a year in the United States.

Compare that with diseases that can be prevented by regular sun exposure. Colon and breast cancers, which may be prevented by regular sun exposure, have mortality rates of 20 to 65 percent and kill 138,000 Americans annually. Every year, 1.5 million Americans with osteoporosis suffer bone fractures, which can be fatal when the person is elderly. Non-melanoma skin cancer is not something to be taken lightly, and I would never minimize its effects on sufferers, but in public health terms, it is relatively unimportant when compared with a host of killer diseases that can be prevented by regular, moderate sun exposure.

No one is suggesting that it is sensible to get sun-burned, suntanned, or to stay in the sun too long. But even for people with UVB induced malignant melanomas, those who continue to get regular minimal exposure to sunlight will have a better prognosis than those who totally shun the sun. For those with coloured and dark skins exposure to sunlight WITHOUT BURNING or starting the burn process, is the best way to improve your overall health prospects.

[tedhutchinson]

5. Vitamin D deficiency in African American mothers may explain the fact that black babies are more than twice as likely as whites to have low-birth-weights.

a) true

b) false

Dr. Kathleen Fuller, of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in Medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine was the first to point out this possibility.

Ethn Dis. 2000 Autumn;10(3):432-45

Health disparities are of continuing concern to the community of public health professionals. Despite concerted efforts on a number of fronts, little progress seems to have been made towards eliminating these disparities. This is due in part to a frame of reference that focuses on race and racism. While racism plays a role, continued focus on socially constructed racial groups will not lead to solutions to the problem. Humans are biological organisms and the presence of disease indicates a maladaptation between the individual human organism and its environment. Lumping together into a 'racial' group large numbers of individuals who share little in terms of phenotype, culture, and/or behavior inhibits reaching appropriate solutions. Progress will only be made when the issue of health disparities is reframed as one of phenotype/environmental mismatch. Such a frame crosscuts current racial groups. Health disparities such as hypertension, prostate cancer, low-birth-weight (LBW) infants, infant mortality, rickets, and melanoma are affected by the interactions of degree of pigmentation, amount of exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation, and levels of serum vitamin D. Reframing the problem of health disparities from one of race and racism to one of phenotype/environmental mismatch permits a solution to an otherwise intractable problem.

[tedhutchinson]

6. Eighty-three percent of American children diagnosed with vitamin D deficient rickets in the last 17 years were African Americans.

a) true

b) false

Again, true.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Dec;80(6 Suppl):1697S-705S.

By including images of coloured skinned kids along with white skinned kids the information here implies that the recommended exposure times for ALL kids is the same.

SunWise Kids Environmental Protection Agency) - Requires Flash Player

By failing to recognise that around 50% of American young people are actually vitamin d3 deficient, and the majority of these will have coloured skins the EPA are negligent to the needs of those with coloured skins. (as well as failing white skinned children by failing to point out the benefits of regular but limited, direct exposure of the skin to sunlight)

[tedhutchinson]

7. Professor John McGrath recently documented that vitamin D is crucial for brain development.

a) true

b) false

Again, the answer is true. Low maternal vitamin D caused altered brain shape, reduced expression of nerve growth factors and increased cellular proliferation in the rat fetal brain. We don’t know what role it plays in humans. African Americans are certainly as intelligent as whites but that doesn’t mean all blacks fetuses (or all white fetuses) are in optimal intrauterine environments. However, another way of asking the question is: “Does it seem reasonable that the most potent steroid hormone in the human body may be important for optimal human brain development?”

J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2004 May;89-90(1-5):557-60

[weeder]

It is good to see you sharing medical information here. You have a broad audience. I am ashamed to say that until I was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma this past summer.... I really didnt know the implications of the cancer. The statistics were a horrifying discovery for me. I then discovered that my ownplastic surgeon, skin cancer specialist, spends much of her time educating the public about skin cancer. Its a very good thing.

[tedhutchinson]

weeder wrote: It is good to see you sharing medical information here. You have a broad audience. I am ashamed to say that until I was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma this past summer.... I really didnt know the implications of the cancer. The statistics were a horrifying discovery for me. I then discovered that my ownplastic surgeon, skin cancer specialist, spends much of her time educating the public about skin cancer. Its a very good thing.I'm sorry that my current broadband provider has lost my connection so haven't been able to get online for a bit. Working from the library isn't quite so convienient.

Sorry to hear about your melanoma.

Unfortunately the Dermatologists paranoia over melanoma has resulted in many more cancer dealths in total that melamona deaths it has saved.

The advice to stay completely out of the sun is dangerous in the extreme.

I think most people have more sense than their cats and if cats can organise themselves to bask in the sun for a bit before moving the shade when sufficiently warmed I think most adults can understand the message that you MUSTN'T GET BURNED, you don't need even to get tanned, you simply need MODEST regular exposure to sunshine.

Those people with melanomas who continue regular short sun bathing sessions have a better prognosis than those who shun the sun. see Sun exposure is associated with increased survival from melanoma.

For more detailed information about the effect of sunlight on melanomas and a balanced view of the overall benefits of regular modest direct exposure of the skin to sunlight see Sunlight Robbery

While I appreciate that Dermatologists are probably doing what they think is best it's probably true that for every melanoma dealth prevented by avoiding the sun there are 250 excess deaths from cancer plus those deaths arising from other conditions created by vitamin d3 cholecalciferol deficiency.

[weeder]

The doctors really didnt tell me to totally stay out of the sun I actually learned that sun exposure is not the only factor causing a melanoma. The incidence can be totally random, The thing that has me scared(when I think about it) is.. ecen though the lesion did not go beyond 1mm and even though my lymph nodes were clean,, The dermatologist said. You misunderstood, your not "cured" you have a 90% chance to survive 5 years.I thought I had escaped and that it was over. Now I get anxiety attacks quite often.

[tedhutchinson]

weeder wrote: The doctors really didnt tell me to totally stay out of the sun I actually learned that sun exposure is not the only factor causing a melanoma. The incidence can be totally random, The thing that has me scared(when I think about it) is.. ecen though the lesion did not go beyond 1mm and even though my lymph nodes were clean,, The dermatologist said. You misunderstood, your not "cured" you have a 90% chance to survive 5 years.I thought I had escaped and that it was over. Now I get anxiety attacks quite often.Great. In the UK the message tends to be stay out of the sun, no tan is a healthy tan. Cover up or else. I'm pleased your dermatologist is taking a more enlightened viewpoint.

Remember those cancers diagnosed and treated in the winter have a worse prognosis that those diagnosed and treated in the Summer. If your melanoma is a winter diagnosis and treatment the way to improve your odds to match the summer ones is to take plenty of Vit d3 if you don't manage to get out in the sun about 20 minutes full body exposure. If your black or brown skinned you will need six times longer for the same effect.

People who sleep longer have a better survival rate than short sleepers. Before you sleep your body produces melatonin. When you body is sleeping your MELANOMA cells also sleep. So the longer you sleep the less chance they have to proliferate. If you are worrying and not sleeping this will not help your chances so TAKE3g MELATONIN about an hour before you go to bed. This will help you and and lingering malignant cells to have a snooze also. You don't want them to get a head start on your immune system.

[weeder]

Thanks again for your reply. May I ask you, are you a physician, or do you just have an interest in this subject? Because Id like to ask you... What the dermatologist said to me was correct then? I could still have cells floating around?

I dont usuallly have a problem sleeping. I am pretty physically exhausted at night. The comment about melanoma cells sleeping is sort of fascinating. also kind of creepy. For lack of a better word. Do all types of cancer cells sleep?

[tedhutchinson]

weeder wrote: Thanks again for your reply. May I ask you, are you a physician, or do you just have an interest in this subject? Because Id like to ask you... What the dermatologist said to me was correct then? I could still have cells floating around?

I dont usuallly have a problem sleeping. I am pretty physically exhausted at night. The comment about melanoma cells sleeping is sort of fascinating. also kind of creepy. For lack of a better word. Do all types of cancer cells sleep?Sorry for the delay in replying. I only frequent this forum occasionally and haven't checked back for a while.

I'm not a doctor but I've spent a long time studying vitamin D and omega 3 for my own health problems. I keep a watch on the latest research so am up to date with current thinking.

Here is a link to the research linking sleep with cancer growth rates Night Shift Work, Light at Night, and Risk of Breast Cancer

Studies showing that sun exposure (higher levels of vitamin d3) improves the prognosis for those with melanoma is here.

Studies in individuals have recently also suggested an effect of sun exposure to reduce risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and to increase survival after a diagnosis of melanoma.