The American journal of the medical sciences
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Black and white female adolescents lose vitamin D metabolites into urine.
The black American population has a higher prevalence of salt sensitivity compared with the white American population. Dahl salt-sensitive rats, models of salt-induced hypertension, excrete protein-bound vitamin D metabolites into urine, a process that is accelerated during high salt intake. We tested the hypothesis that urinary vitamin D metabolite content and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) binding activity of black female adolescents would be greater than that of white female adolescents. ⋯ Urinary loss of vitamin D metabolites may be one cause of low vitamin D status, in addition to low dietary intake and reduced skin synthesis.
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Chronic diseases account for three-quarters of the U. S. health care expenditures and a majority of early deaths and lost of productive years of life. ⋯ Strategies to eliminate these disparities in chronic diseases need to be multidisciplinary and focus on increasing access to all aspects of health care, including prevention. This article discusses the impact of health disparities on chronic diseases and offers some factors to consider for solutions to the problem.
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Factors contributing to heart failure (HF) in African Americans (AA) are under investigation. Reduced 25(OH)D confers increased cardiovascular risk, including HF. ⋯ Hypovitaminosis D is prevalent amongst AA residing in Memphis, with or without HF. Elevations in serum PTH in keeping with secondary hyperparathyroidism are only found in AA with decompensated HF, where hypovitaminosis D and other factors are contributory.
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Having local health data is critical to combat health disparities, and zip code-level data are an underutilized source of such information. We sought to use zip code-level mortality data to determine where health disparities existed in our local area. ⋯ Using zip code-level data provides an accurate foundation from which to design local interventions to address health disparities.