Vitamin D Levels in Arab-Americans Too Low
Photo by El Gato Negro
by Caitlin
According to a study published by Henry Ford Hospital researchers, Arab-American women living in southeast Detroit, Michigan have dangerously low vitamin D levels and should be taking supplements for it. The study showed that their levels averaged 8.5 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter). A healthy vitamin D level is 30 ng/mL or higher. Vitamin D is extremely important to a persons’ body. Without enough vitamin D, people will have an increased risk of cancer, diabetes, and Crohn’s disease. Vitamin D also maintains the normal levels of calcium and phosphorus, and helps form and maintain strong bones.
For this study, researchers found eighty-seven women in an ethnic grocery store in Dearborn, Michigan. They wore the hijab, a conservative dress with a headscarf. They used them to look for correlations between dress, diet, and their use of vitamin D supplements and vitamin D fortified foods, if any. The results of the study were shocking. Forty-seven of the women reported drinking milk on a weekly basis, but the amount was nowhere near significant enough to boost their vitamin D levels.
Raymond Hobbs, M.D., a Henry Ford Internal Medicine physician and director of the study, said, “when people live where the weather is colder and they are more covered with clothing, they depend on their diet for their vitamin D. Unfortunately, most food with the exception of oily fish and vitamin D fortified milk have very little vitamin D. The women in our study drank very little milk, fortified orange juice, and had decreased sun exposure because of their dress.”
More than 490,000 Arab-Americans live in southeast Michigan, making it the largest population of Arab-Americans in the world outside of the Middle East. These women do not get enough sunlight exposure which is the most important factor for producing vitamin D in the body. Because of this, Dr. Hobbs said, “the Henry Ford Hospital is launching an awareness campaign to educate the Arab-American community in Dearborn about the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and offer options for addressing the problem.”
What could these women do to boost their vitamin D levels? What else can low vitamin D cause?
February 24th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
What a timely post! As a doctor working in Southeast Michigan, I see a lot of vitamin D deficiency, and research is beginning to show that we need to pay much more attention to it.
We used to think that if you got enough vitamin D to prevent rickets, a serious bone disease, then that would be enough. New research is beginning to point to the importance of vitamin D in many different health problems, although we still don’t know all the details.
Vitamin D comes from food, and is also produced in the skin when the skin is exposed to sunlight. The farther you live from the equator, the less sunlight you get, and the less vitamin D you make. Michigan is pretty far from the equator, and Southeast Michigan has very cloudy, dark winters. People here get very little sun most of the year.
Also, vitamin D is available in milk, but many people are unable to digest milk very well. People whose ancestors are from northern Europe can usually digest it OK, but everyone else often has a harder time. People with darker skin, such as people with African ancestors, often cannot tolerate milk as well as Europeans and get less vitamin D in their diet.
Also, people with darker skin require more sunlight to make vitamin D because the melanin that gives skin its dark color also blocks sunlight.
Of course, too much sunlight isn’t healthy either, but it doesn’t take much to get good vitamin D production.
It is important to be able to address your individual patient’s health needs. If you know that people in the north and with darker skin may be more at risk for low vitamin D, you can be extra careful to look for vitamin D deficiency in these patients.
Anyway, I’ve babbled way too long, but thanks for calling attention to this.
February 28th, 2009 at 10:10 am
To answer your questions Caitlin. These woman could drink orange juice, eat fish, drink milk that is vitamin D fortified, and take vitamin supplements. I also read on this wed sight, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25334302/, that low vitamin D can cause heart disease.
February 28th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Great post Caitlin!I looked up vitamin D deficiency (at http://www.vitaminddeficiencydiseases.com/ ) and what i found was very interesting. It turns out that grown-ups over the age of 50 have more of a chance of getting a vitamin D deficiency. This is because the ability to covert vitamin Dto its active forme decreases ovewhen we age. That’s why many adults get vitamin D from a suppliment.
March 1st, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Good post Caitlin! This post makes alot of sense. We also went over the dangers of not getting enough vitimin d in class. This post was interesting because, when we were talking about it in class I thought what do arbian women do, since they can only show part of their face. These women could get vitimin d supplements, or eat fish on a regular bases. Also vitimin d deffices is un-healthy for a pregnant mother, because her baby can have problems from lack of vitimin d.