An interesting little example here of quite how much recent mass immigration has changed Britain. Note that Britain has always been changing as a result of immigration so this is nothing new. It’s just that this is a little different – as shown by the specific point we’re going to talk about – and of a scale not seen for a long, long, time. The underlying genetics have changed sufficiently that Vitamin D dosing for all babies is now being considered:
All babies should be given vitamin D from birth, say experts
Lack of Vitamin D causes rickets. Largely so, Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin from the requisite precursors. Sunlight is required for this process.
Those of us evolved – evolution meant in the proper sense here, those who didn’t do this died, or didn’t have children at least – for these more northerly and less sunshiney climes have lighter skin. A major reason for this being to synthesize more Vitamin D out of that sunlight.
Those more recent arrivals will not have the genetics to support this. Thus:
Högler says all babies should have it from birth and those not taking it should be picked up when babies are given their vaccinations. “Why are we preventing infections but not preventing rickets in the same way?” he asked.
The paper Högler co-authored describes three cases of babies of aged six months or less who became very ill because of lack of vitamin D in the journal BMC Pediatrics . The other two recovered. All were born to women of black, Asian and minority ethnic origin. Dark skin and a lack of sunshine – either because of living in a northerly climate or through covering up – reduces the amount of vitamin D that the skin produces. So does a lack of calcium in the diet.
The UK has a “vitamin D winter” – insufficient sunshine for dark skins in particular to make the vitamin – for six months of the year. “It is no surprise,” says the paper, “that the cases we report presented in early spring.”
Note that calcium in the diet, that’s one of the precursors. Britain had endemic rickets among the poor in the past. That free school milk that St. Maggie stopped was one of the cures for that. But both are needed, the precursor and the sunlight through a light skin. A darker skin requires either more light or those supplements.
Now, all of the above has been known for a long time. It shouldn’t surprise any at all. The interesting part of it being that this problem – one limited to those not genetically adapted to the climate here – has become so widespread that the recommendation is that the entire population be dosed to deal with it.
That’s a symptom of pretty large scale immigration, isn’t it?
Ethnic minority not minority ethnic. Minority is a noun not an adjective, ethnic is an adjective not a noun. And Asian people and black people in Britiain *ARE* ethnic minorities. So the correct English is just plain simple “ethnic minority”. I hope these illiterates are kept away from the actual front-line delivery in the NHS or they’ll be insisting on “surgery and excision”. My experience of an estimated £3000 of taxpayer-funded medical service yesterday* (and £200 of drugs on my desk here) seems to show it’s not infected my hospital yet, though I did raise at eyebrow at being asked… Read more »
It’s fairly obviously not genetics. Or there’d be a high incidence of rickets amongst Afro-Americans in the US’s northern cities. Which the make up of gridiron football teams would seem to deny. So more due to covering up? If so, why do white babies have to be dosed with vitamin D because a few shit-heads are culturally unsuited for northern climates?
The border with Canada is the 49th parallel. The tip of the Lizard in Cornwall is just North of that. Most of the US is far south of the UK. The US also has more foods fortified with Vitamin D.
Bloke in Spain (“Or there’d be a high incidence of rickets amongst Afro-Americans in the US’s northern cities.”) is suffering from a bit of a lack of geographic knowledge. The whole of non-Alaskan USA is south of the 49th parallel. And the whole of the United Kingdom is north of the 49th parallel. I remember (approximately) this sort of thing by noting that New York City is, latitude wise, roughly level with Madrid. Does BoS have figures for the incidence of Afro-Caribbean (probably every skin shade) rickets in Alaska, for those not supplemented with Vitamin D (which they might well… Read more »
Bloke in Spain, it fairly obviously is genetics. Not because Tim hates dark skin, but because the article notes exactly why black people need more sunlight to produce Vitamin D, and might need supplements. The US is more southerly, but the northern continental US still poses problems for those of dark skin. The prevalence of black players in the NFL proves nothing. Each franchise has professionals under contract to continually test the machines of that industry and administer whatever supplements they need. NFL players are much healthier than the population at large, before occupational injuries. However, the suggestion that everyone… Read more »
Just PC crowd afraid to say that different groups need different things because that would be discriminating and diversive and so on
Just possibly… How much does it cost to administer a VitD shot? Material should be under 50p, so allow for public sector procurement and say £5. Plus 5 mins of midwife time at a total cost of employment [TCE] (i.e. incl. pension contributions, employer NI, etc.) of £50k = ~£2.50 + another similar amount of bureaucrat time filling in the forms to say it’s been done. Let’s call it a tenner all in. How much does it cost to decide whether to give the VitD shot or not? 5 mins of paediatrician time at a TCE of £150k = ~£7.50… Read more »
“Note that Britain has always been changing as a result of immigration so this is nothing new”
If by “always”, you mean since 1948 then this sentence is correct.
The 5th and 6 th centuries AD saw some changes. So did the 8 th and 9th. For example.
The vast majority of Asians and Africans are lactose intolerant, and so cannot drink milk. They need to get calcium from non-dairy sources therefore, and no doubt this is a big contributory factor to the problem.