African-American, Caucasian Women Should Take Identical Vitamin D Doses: Study

According to a recent study, African-American women battling vitamin D deficiencies need the same dose as Caucasian women to treat the condition.

According to a recent study, African-American women battling vitamin D deficiencies need the same dose as Caucasian women to treat the condition. The study was accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Although women with darker skin tones tend to have lower levels of the biomarker used to measure Vitamin D levels, called 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25OHD, the study found that older African-American and Caucasian women responded in the same way when they received vitamin D supplements.

Are Mushrooms Good or Bad?
Mushrooms are true wonder foods with numerous health benefits. But be warned there are poisonous mushrooms too. Mushrooms are world’s greatest untapped resources of nutrition.

Unlike many vitamins that are absorbed primarily from foods, the body’s main source of vitamin D is sunlight. Vitamin D deficiency, which is primarily caused by inadequate exposure to sunlight and very poor diet, can result in abnormalities in calcium, phosphorus and bone metabolism. Vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets in children or a bone-softening condition called osteomalacia and muscle weakness in adults.

In a double-blind study that gave varying vitamin D doses to African-American and Caucasian women of similar body size, levels of the 25OHD biomarker were very similar. The findings suggest that vitamin D absorption and metabolism is the same in both groups. Researchers concluded that African-American women tend to have lower levels of the biomarker 25OHD because they naturally produce less vitamin D in the skin after sunlight exposure.

"African-American women don’t have to worry about taking larger doses of vitamin D to compensate," said J. Chris Gallagher, MD, of Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb., and lead author of the study. "They should follow the current medical guidelines for vitamin D supplementation suggested recently by the Institute of Medicine."

Calcium and Vitamin Supplements
Calcium and vitamin supplements are taken to provide the body with the ''required'' nutrients. Calcium is a mineral found in many foods. Vitamins are very important nutrients for the body.

The Endocrine Society has issued a separate set of clinical practice guidelines governing vitamin D dosage.

Previously there was no research in minority populations to determine whether the same guidelines applied to them. Researchers designed this study to develop dosing guidelines for older African-American women. The study, which looked at vitamin D doses in 110 African-American women between the ages of 57 and 90, was the first randomized controlled dose response study conducted in this population.