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Last Updated: Apr 20, 2011 - 9:38:09 AM |
THURSDAY March 13, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- Vitamin D is more than more important than thought and it can prevent a range of diseases including cancers. But a new study cautions that just because you live in a Southern state like Arizona does not mean you would get enough vitamin D through exposure to the sun. This is particularly true in blacks and Hispanics.
For the study, Elizabeth T Jacobs from University of Arizona and the Medical University of South Carolina and colleagues tested Arizonian participants of a colorectal adenoma prevention study for their serum vitamin D known as 25 hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D.
They found 55.5 percent of blacks and 37.6 percent of Hispanics were more likely to have deficient 25(OH)D concentrations (<20 ng per mL) in their blood compared to 22.7 percent in non-Hispanic whites. Sun exposure had a greater effort on 25(OH)D in whites than in blacks and Hispanics.
The researchers concluded that "Despite residing in a region with high chronic sun exposure, adults in southern Arizona are commonly deficient in vitamin D deficiency, particularly blacks and Hispanics."
The study was published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 87, No. 3, 608-613, March 2008.
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