Racial differences in vitamin effects

Research results published in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggest that the use of vitamin D supplements does not slow bone loss in healthy, postmenopausal black women. Dr John Aloia, of Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York, notes that previous studies looking at the effects of vitamin D supplementation in white women have produced conflicting results. His group decided to focus on black women for this research because their low vitamin D levels make them a “vulnerable population.” Dr Aloia and his colleagues are now studying the differences between white and blacks in the way vitamin D is processed in the body.

Reuters