In a message dated 4/6/01 4:41:02 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< I mentioned to my husband that I was appalled that some of the "Lost Boys"
from the Sudan (civil war refugees) had been relocated to Fargo, North
Dakota (see the article by Sara Corbett in this past Sunday's New York Times
Magazine -- she is also doing an article on extended bf for a future edition
of the magazine).  Anyway, I was appalled because people from the Sudan are
from one of the hottest countries on earth, and with the highest rates of UV
radiation, and therefore have among the darkest skin on earth.  Should these
young boys and men marry dark-skinned women and have babies in North Dakota,
they'll need TONS of Vitamin D supplements, regardless of how much sunshine
they get, which won't be much because it's so darned cold there.
 >>

Actually I find all of this very confusing.  The study that has been quoted
over and over is from North Carolina- not exactly the coldest place in the
United States.  Being African American and knowing that we come in a spectrum
of colors (sometimes in one family the color can range from blue-black to
very light skinned), I wonder how this study adequately represents a
statement about the need for vitamin  D in African Americans.

What is more concerning that based upon this study an assumption is made that
very dark skinned folks are at some peril living in cold climates (this makes
as much sense as saying all lightly pigmented people should leave sunny and
warm climates to reduce their risk of skin cancer).  I grew up in Chicago
(not exactly the tropics or sunny during the winter) very dark skinned and
around many dark skinned types.  I attended medical school at the University
of Chicago and did an Internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.  The
cases of rickets that I saw were few in number.

I think this piece of research on Breastfeeding and Vitamin D is another
example of how some researchers chose their dogma and ideology first and then
shape the data to fit their frame of reference.  This paradigm is not
isolated to this topic.  James Mckenna from Univ. of Notre Dame
(mother-infant sleep researcher) addresses this eloquently in his critique of
cosleeping and bedsharing work done by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Some very curious stuff...

Pierrette Mimi Poinsett, MD FAAP
Modesto CA

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