Race may affect need for vitamin D

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., March 15 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher suggests vitamin D supplements have different effects based on patients' race.

Dr. Barry Freedman of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., says lifting low-levels of the vitamin D -- "the go-to remedy" for protection from a wide range of ills such as low bone density and heart disease -- could have bad effects on the blood vessels of blacks that increase their risk of heart disease.

"We found that higher circulating levels of vitamin D in blacks were associated with more calcium in the artery walls," Freedman said in a statement. "This is the opposite effect of what is felt to occur in white patients and shows that the accepted 'normal' range of vitamin D may be different between blacks and whites."

Freedman and colleagues measured circulating vitamin D levels in 340 black men and women with type 2 diabetes. Calcium deposited in blood vessel walls -- forming a bone-like material called "calcified atherosclerotic plaque" linked to heart disease -- was detected using computed tomography scans.

The study findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.