It’s long been known that African Americans have a higher incidence of diabetes than white Americans. Usually ascribed to racism in the economy and health treatment.
Hmm:
In an interesting new paper, Andersen et al. (2021) use the Putterman-Weil historical migration index to show that life-expectancy is lower in countries where a large proportion of that country’s population emigrated from places with more sunlight (UV-R). Ethiopians in Israel, Indians in the UK and blacks in the United States, for example, tend to have Vitamin D deficiency and higher levels of mortality and morbidity from a wide variety of diseases. The effect at the global level is small but significant, about the same order of magnitude as the effect of income, inequality, and schooling.
And:
Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to the onset of diabetes. This review summarizes the role of Vitamin D in maintaining the normal release of insulin by the pancreatic beta cells (β-cells). Diabetes is initiated by the onset of insulin resistance. The β-cells can overcome this resistance by releasing more insulin, thus preventing hyperglycaemia. However, as this hyperactivity increases, the β-cells experience excessive Ca2+ and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signalling that results in cell death and the onset of diabetes. Vitamin D deficiency contributes to both the initial insulin resistance and the subsequent onset of diabetes caused by β-cell death. Vitamin D acts to reduce inflammation, which is a major process in inducing insulin resistance.
Umm?
Saw a report on NDTV (Indian news channel on Sky) a few days ago regarding the alarming fact that Indians were 40% more likely to suffer heart attacks and stroke than normal(white) people. In India.
Not sure how this could be spun as something racist but I’m certain some cunt will try…..
I read that in the UK, with our modern indoor/office lifestyle, most people are vitamin-D deficient, before we even start considering the inbuilt sun-block effect on some.
This deficiency compromises the immune system.
I was persuaded to take vitamin D supplements, and have not had a cold in 18 months, when normally I would have one every 6-8 weeks.
Of course, much of this time was in lockdown, but not all of it. Still, there remains a possibility this is as effective as my elephant deterrent (100% effective, no elephants seen since installation. Cash in advance only, no refunds).
Vit-D is also hyped as a Covid deterrent – I’ll leave it to others to comment on how valid this is.
But the immune boost effect seems to be solid medical knowledge, and my personal experience is beneficial. And 2p/day (4000 unit) doesn’t break the bank.
And so it may help deter diabetes too…..hmm…time to ban it for sure.
I guess we’ll never solve the mystery of exactly how white supremacy makes people gorge their gigantic fat tiddies on KFC and sugarwater every day
As an antiviral vitamin D3 is the trick: 1000 iU a day.
Like Tim I have managed to avoid colds and flu this past winter season Down Under – and, perhaps, Covid. I am extremely susceptible to these after decades of smoking and a near death experience with pneumonia a few decades back. My age and a relative lack of exposure to sunlight do not help.
I find the D3 is not so much a fence at the top of the viral cliff but a damn good ambulance at the bottom. Any sniffle I do acquire never develops to much and is gione within 6-12 hours.
Vit D2, by the way, is not in the same league as an antiviral.
Steve, clearly it’s the stress of being forced to live amongst ebil White people that does it.
I read that in the UK, with our modern indoor/office lifestyle, most people are vitamin-D deficient, before we even start considering the inbuilt sun-block effect on some.
Add to that all the messaging about sun block.
I lead a moderately outdoor lifestyle, golf twice a week, sailing, hiking and pottering around the garden. About 4 years ago I was getting some tests done and my GP added Vit D test as routine, he didn’t think it would be linked to my health problem.
When the tests came back he rang me before I had chance to ring the surgery and told me he was putting me on an emergency Vit D boost for a month and then on to a standard booster as my Vit D was so low.
I haven’t had a cough or cold since and I just generally feel better.
I only wear sun block on my face now, because I have very dry skin as, as I understand the science, its still better to get direct Vit D from sunlight.
There have been papers on this sort of thing for years, e.g., from 2017:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5466148/
“Studies in south Asian populations with type 2 diabetes mellitus
SA communities have a four-to-six-fold greater rate of people with T2DM than White British communities,28 and there have been a number of recent studies investigating the relationship with vitamin D status and T2DM in this ethnic group.”
“In 2012, the Chief Medical Officers for the United Kingdom sent out a letter to General Practitioners, Practice Nurses Health Visitors and Community Pharmacists to raise the awareness of vitamin D deficiency, particularly amongst the high risk groups in UK population which include people who have darker skin of SA origin”
The worst of it is that the situation is actually no better among the populations of South Asia itself, where clothing and traditions prevent people receiving adequate sunlight. Indeed, in Saudi Arabia 17.6% of the population is diabetic!
It doesn’t matter where you live, if you don’t routinely at least roll up your sleeves and/or wear shorts in late spring and early summer, and preferably take your shirt off sometimes, you’ll be deficient in vitamin D.
I also get the impression that while vitamin D itself is obviously vital, as this study shows, to some extent it’s only a proxy for the other benefits of exposure to the sun, e.g., the dilation of blood vessels to regulate blood pressure, and the generation of anti-microbial peptides within the body.
So, don’t rely just on vitamin D supplements as a way of mitigating the downsides of under-exposure to sunlught.
Here’s what you need to understand and realize about the left…
They will do everything within their power to avoid admitting they are at fault. For anything whatsoever.
First, they will deny this science while still claiming to support science. Just like they did with the whole GMO debate.
Then, they will claim that this study is a diversion from the real issues of racism and “white supremacy.”
Finally, even at the point when they do accept the findings of this study, they will blame this phenomenon on climate change. And since we know these sociopaths believe in “intersectionality,” they will still blame the vitamin D deficiency on corporations, industrialization, “toxic masculinity,” and ultimately “whiteness.” Cue the next wave of ineffective marches for climate justice.
Of course, nothing at all will be said about the government-enforced COVID lockdowns that likely exacerbated this problem. That’s too inconvenient for the left to admit, and that observation will be censored from all media platforms if the citizenry starts to ask too many questions.
They’ll also, at this final stage, claim that they never denied the efficacy of the study, and were always on the right side of history from the beginning. In fact, they’ll pretend that the conservatives are the ones who doubted the study, just like they’ve recently been claiming Republicans wanted to defund the police in the U.S.
Shortly after this malarkey started I recall a study of vitamin D. It compared survivors of ICU and blood tests from the dead. IIRC all the subjects were deficient, but the dead were so deficient that their circulating vit D levels were under 20% of the recommended saturation.
Can anyone confirm if there was any follow up?
@ philip
Can anyone confirm if there was any follow up?
It probably has been classified as inconvenient evidence and buried together with the test subjects.
philip
Lots of them here.
https://c19vitamind.com/
If it’s the Spanish one you were thinking of, that’s possibly August 29 2020 on that list (Castillo et al)?
Kendrick wrote something on this as well quite early on:
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2020/04/28/covid-update-focus-on-vitamin-d/
aa, pf
Thanks. D3 looks prophylactic, but is there evidence of benefit if given after infection?
As an aside, the only cold I’ve had in 15 -20 years is when I was persuaded to take the flu vaccine. But I only started on D3 last year. My son’s girlfriend had a mild dose of covid, neither he nor I had any symptoms so I don’t know if we got infected. I might go for an antibody test, they are cheap (under 30 euros) in France so should be available here.
The D3 pills you get at Boots take a few weeks to build up your vitamin D levels. It won’t work as a treatment. A Calcefidiol injection works a bit quicker and might just work as an early treatment if given immediately after a positive test.
As an aside, I’ve noticed that when I go on holiday and when I started D3 last winter my fingernail grew faster and better. I think that might be an indication of one’s vitamin D level.
I can’t find out where and how the 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels for deficiency were established. I wonder if it isn’t the level required to eliminate rickets and bone problems, NOT the optimum for the immune system. The NHS recommendation, 400 iud, is totally inadequate. There’s no problem with 6-10000 iud daily. You’d have to take a helluva lot to do yourself harm.
Just my opinion, no medical qualifications, obvs.
philip
As Rhoda says – the Vit D “early treatment”, to be effective, is usually based on high dose Calcifediol. Ie, so it’s straight into the blood stream rather than delayed a couple of weeks or whatever via the liver as D3 is. As a general prophylactic, that’s not an issue as you say.
Rhoda
Yes, levels etc, that’s consistent with lots elsewhere. Fingernails: strangely, I noticed that as well! I was also interested about the apparent effect of K2 (Mk 7?), if taking any significant amounts of D3, and the associated impact on Calcium – perhaps redirecting the Calcium from (any build up in the) the arteries towards bone? Perhaps I need to go back and read more on that.