The World

Skin Color and Vitamin D

Dark-skinned African Americans are twice as likely to be vitamin-D deficient as white Americans, and that may have major health repercussions.

Some 70 percent of Americans are vitamin D deficient. That’s according to the Centers for Disease Control. People get vitamin D from sunshine but those with darker skin need more sun than others. African Americans are more likely to have insufficient amounts of vitamin D than whites, and, as Ashley Ahearn reports, that makes them more likely to get certain types of diseases like cancer and diabetes.