Detrimental effects of Islamic dress - Women deficient in D

[Justforfun000]

This is where I find religion is at its most insidious. Directly harming people and their general health because of nonsensical customs. I hope these women become aware of the need for supplementation.


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/139280.php

Dangerously Low Vitamin D Levels In Arab-American Women
Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology; Cancer / Oncology; Diabetes
Article Date: 17 Feb 2009 - 5:00 PST


Arab-American women living in southeast Detroit whose conservative dress limits their exposure to sun should be taking a vitamin D supplement to boost their dangerously low serum levels, according to a study published by Henry Ford Hospital researchers.

Researchers found that all 87 women involved in a small study showed vitamin D levels averaging 8.5 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter) for those who wore western dress to 4 ng/mL for those who wore the hijab, modest dress with a headscarf. A healthy vitamin D level is 30 ng/mL or higher.

Also, the women consumed little dietary sources of vitamin D. Forty-seven women reported drinking any milk on a weekly basis, but the amount they consume isn't significant enough to boost their vitamin D levels, researchers say.

The study is published in the January/February issue of Endocrine Practice. It is believed to be the largest study on the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans in southeast Michigan.

Raymond Hobbs, M.D., a Henry Ford Internal Medicine physician and lead author of the study, described the vitamin D deficiency in the women as "much greater than we would have thought."

"When people live where the weather is colder and they are more covered with clothing, they depend on their diet for their vitamin D," Dr. Hobbs says. "Unfortunately, most food with the exception of oily fish and vitamin D fortified milk has very little vitamin D. The women in our study drank very little milk, fortified orange juice and had decreased sun exposure because of their dress."

Low levels of vitamin D are linked to increased risk of cancer, diabetes and Crohn's disease, Dr. Hobbs says. Vitamin D is needed to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. It also helps in the absorption of calcium, helping to form and maintain strong bones.

"Our findings are consistent with those of similar studies in other parts of the world and underscore the point that there are pockets of individuals who are at risk for culturally mediated health problems," Dr. Hobbs says. "We need to raise their awareness of this deficiency and to offer them options for increasing their vitamin D levels. A vitamin D supplement is a start."

More than 490,000 Arab Americans reside in southeast Michigan, the largest population anywhere outside the Middle East. For the study, researchers looked at Arab-American women in the city of Dearborn, a southeast Detroit suburb in which Arab Americans comprise one third of the 100,000 population.

Sunlight exposure is the single most important factor in producing vitamin D in the body. For example, sun bathing for a period of time will produce 10,000- 20,000 international units, a measure of vitamin potency, or the equivalent of 100 glasses of fortified milk.

For the study, researchers recruited women who attended an ethnic supermarket in Dearborn during the course of two Saturdays in April 2007 to search for correlations with dress, diet, use of vitamin D-fortified foods and vitamin supplements. They were interviewed to assess dress, medical history, medication use, clinical symptoms associated with vitamin D deficiency, consumption of fortified milk or fortified orange juice and vitamin supplements. Blood samples also were taken onsite and analyzed for levels of vitamin D and parathyroid hormone and other minerals.

Dr. Hobbs says Henry Ford is launching an awareness campaign to educate the Arab American community in Dearborn about the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and offer options for addressing the problem.

Researchers theorize that Arab American women avoid milk because of reported higher incidence of lactose intolerance in their population.

"Our goal is to help them understand that by taking these preventive measures now, they can avoid serious health problems in the future," Dr. Hobbs says.

[mr friendly guy]

This isn't exactly new, although it may be the first time we have numbers to back up our assertion.

We also know old folks in nursing homes who don't get out much will also be vitamin D deficient.

Seriously, if you are going to wear such clothing, at least take the supplements.

[K. A. Pital]

Oh yeah... that's insidious. It's not like the average person automatically does the math that in arabic nations there's so much sun that even small exposures give enough vitamin D, but elsewhere it might not be true and the custom will end up fucking his health.

[Korto]

Hey, you don't need religion for that. Just follow the Cancer Council's recomendations, and you'll need the D supplements. Damned Australian Cancer Council's a bloody religion in itself.
They'd probably like everyone to take up Islamic dress.

[Kanastrous]

There's a little voice mumbling in the back of my head, about allowing people to suffer the consequences of their silly retrograde customs...

...although I guess that in a society where their care may eventually be underwritten by the general public, that's not really very fair.

[Justforfun000]

It's sad though that such a totally insensible dress code that has no concern for the environment and it's relation to your body temperature also puts people at such a huge risk for cancer and other diseases that have been very strongly linked to Vitamin D deficiency. If there is a true vitamin superstar these days, D is it. It's hormonal in nature as well as nutritional.
Clothes should always be based on an appropriateness of temperature and the ability to be comfortable first and foremost. The insistence on them being a barrier solely for covering up someone's body from people's appraising eyes is a fucked up reason of purpose in the first place.

Oh yeah... that's insidious. It's not like the average person automatically does the math that in arabic nations there's so much sun that even small exposures give enough vitamin D, but elsewhere it might not be true and the custom will end up fucking his health.

I'm having a hard time understanding your point here..it's worded a little confusingly. From what I understand this custom is not exactly one of individual choice. These women are forced to cover up at all times when outdoors and so the law is deliberately enforcing a dress code that is harming them. I wonder if they could have some private women-only places where they can shed some of the outer garments while they socialize and make it a "sunshine" tea time or something...At least now they might become aware of this problem with this study.

[Kanastrous]

Reportedly the dress codes for private women-only gyms, even in Saudi Arabia, are minimalist even by western standards.

[General Zod]

Oh yeah... that's insidious. It's not like the average person automatically does the math that in arabic nations there's so much sun that even small exposures give enough vitamin D, but elsewhere it might not be true and the custom will end up fucking his health.

I'm having a hard time understanding your point here..it's worded a little confusingly. From what I understand this custom is not exactly one of individual choice. These women are forced to cover up at all times when outdoors and so the law is deliberately enforcing a dress code that is harming them. I wonder if they could have some private women-only places where they can shed some of the outer garments while they socialize and make it a "sunshine" tea time or something...At least now they might become aware of this problem with this study.

He's saying that you're interpreting the report wrong. If they were living in Saudi Arabia or another nation on a similar section of the world, the dress wouldn't interfere with their ability to make Vitamin D. So it's not that they're intentionally doing so to harm their health, they're doing it because they're too ignorant to realize they're harming their health by maintaining the same dress in another environment.

[kinnison]

Perhaps the effect of Islamic dress for women on health due to vitamin D deficiency is a rather minor risk, compared to the rather severe risk of death by stabbing, bludgeoning and strangulation taken by women who wear such dress?

[General Zod]

Perhaps the effect of Islamic dress for women on health due to vitamin D deficiency is a rather minor risk, compared to the rather severe risk of death by stabbing, bludgeoning and strangulation taken by women who wear such dress?

As obvious as it is that most Islamic countries are shitholes, I don't see how this is related to the article at all.

[Kanastrous]

Perhaps the effect of Islamic dress for women on health due to vitamin D deficiency is a rather minor risk, compared to the rather severe risk of death by stabbing, bludgeoning and strangulation taken by women who wear such dress?

As obvious as it is that most Islam countries are shitholes, I don't see how this is related to the article at all.

It's not that the countries are shitholes; it's that their charmingly retrograde practices travel with them elsewhere (i.e. covered head-to-toe in Riyadh vs. covered head-to-toe in London/getting honor-butchered in Cairo vs. getting honor-butchered in Copenhagen)

[General Zod]

It's not that the countries are shitholes; it's that their charmingly retrograde practices travel with them elsewhere (i.e. covered head-to-toe in Riyadh vs. covered head-to-toe in London/getting honor-butchered in Cairo vs. getting honor-butchered in Copenhagen)

Still failing to see how it's relevant to the article.

[Kanastrous]

I think kinnison was observing that while vitamin D deficiency is bad, perhaps it will be regarded as a necessary evil since getting slaughtered for 'immodest dress' is worse.

[General Zod]

I think kinnison was observing that while vitamin D deficiency is bad, perhaps it will be regarded as a necessary evil since getting slaughtered for 'immodest dress' is worse.

Yeah, that still involves trying to wedge in an ethical argument where none exists.

[Kanastrous]

If a custom is known to be physically harmful to women, and that custom looks set to persist despite the degree of harm it does women, there seems to be an ethical dimension to that.

[Broomstick]

Just a few thoughts (ironically enough, I happen to be in SE Michigan at the moment...)

This is where I find religion is at its most insidious. Directly harming people and their general health because of nonsensical customs. I hope these women become aware of the need for supplementation.

Although the custom can cause harm, part of the problem is that the harm occurs over decades, which weakens the connection in the average person's perception.

Also, do NOT assume that the majority of Muslim women in SE Michigan are somehow ignorant dipshits under the tyrannical thumbs of sadistic male relatives. Although some of that applies (and not just to Muslims, but also various other groups) there is a definitely a segment of highly educated Muslim women in the area who nonetheless maintain a Muslim dress code. They are, after all, pretty visible when out in public.

Researchers found that all 87 women involved in a small study showed vitamin D levels averaging 8.5 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter) for those who wore western dress to 4 ng/mL for those who wore the hijab, modest dress with a headscarf. A healthy vitamin D level is 30 ng/mL or higher.

I will also point out that this study, incorporating women who wear "western" attire as one group, demonstrates that it is NOT just the hijab that is causing a problem here. A good slice of the problem is that you have dark-skinned people living at a lattitude with less sunlight than where their ancestors lived, and where the climate demands you cover up entirely while outside during a significant part of the year due to a season called "winter". Even the Arab women wearing weastern dress are dangerously deficient in vitamin D, the hijab only makes it worse.

I would be interested in the vitamin D levels of the African-descended part of the population around here, too, as their skin tends to be even darker. This is clearly an environmental as well as a cultural problem, but it's oh-so-much easier (and for some more satisfying) to simply blame custom instead of looking at the broader picture.

Also, the women consumed little dietary sources of vitamin D. Forty-seven women reported drinking any milk on a weekly basis, but the amount they consume isn't significant enough to boost their vitamin D levels, researchers say.

"We need to raise their awareness of this deficiency and to offer them options for increasing their vitamin D levels. A vitamin D supplement is a start."

Researchers theorize that Arab American women avoid milk because of reported higher incidence of lactose intolerance in their population.

The authors of this study seem to be pushing dietary changes. However, I don't feel it's reasonable to try to get a bunch of lactose-intolerant people to consume more dairy products. Why? Because people tend to avoid consuming foods that make them feel like crap. Yes, there are dairy products that are naturally low-lactase, but it's a western bias to force milk products on adult mammals - MOST of the world does not do this, and most human beings lack the enzymes to properly digest milk past weaning. Maybe, instead of trying to force food ill-suited to most humans onto most humans we should try something else?

Yes, there are artificial supplements, but swallowing pills may not be the only solution. There is also, to my mind, an issue of making people dependent upon pharmaceutical companies for life when it may not be necessary to do so.

Sunlight exposure is the single most important factor in producing vitamin D in the body. For example, sun bathing for a period of time will produce 10,000- 20,000 international units, a measure of vitamin potency, or the equivalent of 100 glasses of fortified milk.

OK - how about sunlamps in these peoples' homes? Seriously - perhaps in the bathroom, so every morning while they are dressing/showering/whatever they get a dose of full-spectrum, vitamin D inducing light expsoure? It would be utilizing a natural means of obtaining the vitamin, one the body is adapted to while avoiding the cultural pitfalls involving "modest dress" and dietary incompatibility. Yes, there is the risk of skin cancer but, as darker skinned individuals, they are more resistant to such cancer than someone of my rather pale hide and the times required for vitamin D manufacture (as opposed to tanning) are truly not very long at all. I suppose in theory one could calibrate the required "dose" and set a timer on the sunlamp to administer it and make it part of daily grooming just like brushing one's teeth in the morning, but even without that, a daily exposure of even 10-15 minutes of UV light of the appropriate wavelength would go far to remedy much if not all of this definiciency.

[General Zod]

If a custom is known to be physically harmful to women, and that custom looks set to persist despite the degree of harm it does women, there seems to be an ethical dimension to that.

It would be nice if your argument stayed consistent instead of trying to waffle between "it's harmful because it gets them beaten" or "it's harmful because it winds up causing a vitamin deficiency and damages their health", if you're going to try arguing for any type of ethical approach. Because trying to claim "it's harmful because it gets them beaten" has nothing to do with the original article.

[Kanastrous]

If they keep the traditional covering on -> they suffer a health problem: vitamin deficiency

If they take it off -> they suffer a health problem: a slit throat

The fact that there is a potentially fatal consequence for addressing the health problem caused by wearing the dress to begin with, is a legitimate thing to note.

[Justforfun000]

OK - how about sunlamps in these peoples' homes? Seriously - perhaps in the bathroom, so every morning while they are dressing/showering/whatever they get a dose of full-spectrum, vitamin D inducing light expsoure? It would be utilizing a natural means of obtaining the vitamin, one the body is adapted to while avoiding the cultural pitfalls involving "modest dress" and dietary incompatibility. Yes, there is the risk of skin cancer but, as darker skinned individuals, they are more resistant to such cancer than someone of my rather pale hide and the times required for vitamin D manufacture (as opposed to tanning) are truly not very long at all.

That would also be a good idea. The most current research I keep seeing says that the benefits of vitamin D FAR outway the cancer risk.

[Broomstick]

If they keep the traditional covering on -> they suffer a health problem: vitamin deficiency

If they take it off -> they suffer a health problem: a slit throat

The fact that there is a potentially fatal consequence for addressing the health problem caused by wearing the dress to begin with, is a legitimate thing to note.

Hey, fuckhead - newsflash: south eastern Michigan is NOT a third world shithole! (Well, maybe Detroit, but we're talking Dearborn, here). The authorities regard any sort of physical violence towards family members as a crime and it is investigated, prosecuted, and punished accordingly. If you had grown up in the area (as I did) you'd know that most of these women are NOT coerced into the hijab, anymore than Jewish boys are beaten until they consent to wear the yarlmuke or Amish women need to be threatened with death in order for the men folk to keep them in long skirts. Maybe it feeds some sort of tough-guy fantasy for you to imagine we have women walking around in chador around here but that's not what the fuck is being discussed here. We're talking about Muslim headscarves and long sleeve shirts, not that bullshit thing Afghani women are forced into. I suppose it escapes your little pea brain that a woman could choose to wear a mode of dress that reflects her culture and beliefs without coercion which is, frankly, insulting not just to Muslims and Arabs but to 51% of the planet.

[Broomstick]

OK - how about sunlamps in these peoples' homes? Seriously - perhaps in the bathroom, so every morning while they are dressing/showering/whatever they get a dose of full-spectrum, vitamin D inducing light expsoure? It would be utilizing a natural means of obtaining the vitamin, one the body is adapted to while avoiding the cultural pitfalls involving "modest dress" and dietary incompatibility. Yes, there is the risk of skin cancer but, as darker skinned individuals, they are more resistant to such cancer than someone of my rather pale hide and the times required for vitamin D manufacture (as opposed to tanning) are truly not very long at all.

That would also be a good idea. The most current research I keep seeing says that the benefits of vitamin D FAR outway the cancer risk.

Not to mention that 10-15 minutes a day would be a minimal risk even for the palest of human beings (outside of albinos and those with something like xeroderma pigmentosum).

[Kanastrous]

I suppose it escapes your little pea brain that a woman could choose to wear a mode of dress that reflects her culture and beliefs without coercion which is, frankly, insulting not just to Muslims and Arabs but to 51% of the planet.

People "choose" do do and accept all kinds of detrimental things (infibulation, clitoridectomy, just get some people around here started on circumcision...) as a consequence of cultural pressures that they can't see any more than a fish sees the water in which it swims. Doing a self-harming foolish retrograde thing is no less harmful, foolish, or retrograde because it enjoys the status of "culture" or "faith" or "tradition" or whatever you want to call it.

The fact that someone was conditioned to accept and desire second-class citizen status - hell, second-class human being status - does not make it any less distasteful to see, from the outside.

As for 'third-world shithole,' some people choose to bring the shittiness with them, no matter where they travel and no matter what the prevailing conditions where they arrive - as I think you acknowledge with your snipe at Detroit, a city in which I actually have spent some time.

If you're convinced that breaking a dress code can't earn you a slit throat or stoning in certain areas of the Muslim world, than you apparently see different news feeds then I do.

[kinnison]

Broomstick:

Actually that is just plain wrong. Rickets (a vitamin deficiency disease caused in young children by vitamin D deficiency) is making a comeback in certain towns in NW England, notably Bradford, and that takes considerably less than the decades you imply.

Everyone else: I wish to clarify what I said in my original post. It is a known fact that being in the ethnic/religious group that is subject to vitamin D deficiency, and being a woman, is extremely hazardous to the health if you choose to rebel even slightly - the incidence of kidnapping, assault and murder of women of south Asian extraction in Britain is so much higher than in the general population that it isn't even slightly funny. And the culprit is usually a family member, protecting the "family honour". Ergo, being of the ethnic/religious group that wears such dress is far more of a health hazard (for women) than the relatively small extra risk of hypovitaminosis D, and for reasons nothing to do with biochemistry.

Short version: Muslims treat their women like shit, and this is far more important than vitamin D deficiency - which, after all, can be fairly easily treated with a teaspoonful or so of cod liver oil per day. Incidentally, vitamin D deficiency is not the only health hazard to which such women are exposed. I have a concrete example; near where I work there is a newsagent run by ethnic Pakistanis. As it happens, I run a store selling natural health products and supplements, and as such I often get asked questions that wouldn't be asked of most, and get told some fairly embarrassing things - doctors are probably rather familiar with this. Anyway, a year or so ago the wife of the owner of this store (who at the time helped out quite often) happened to tell me that she had cystitis, which is usually greatly helped by drinking (and therefore excreting) large amounts of water. As it happens, it was Ramadan, so the obvious solution was not available. In other words, permanent damage was being risked for the sake of religious dogma.

For a small fraction of that population, there is of course a fairly extreme health hazard caused by close proximity to hypersonic shockwaves, in turn caused by the rapid decomposition of organic nitrate compounds. Unfortunately, the latter risk is taken voluntarily, and others in the area who have not chosen to be so exposed are nevertheless exposed. Strangely enough, I take exception to that.

[FSTargetDrone]

cystitis, which is usually greatly helped by drinking (and therefore excreting) large amounts of water. As it happens, it was Ramadan, so the obvious solution was not available. In other words, permanent damage was being risked for the sake of religious dogma.

Fascinating (and somewhat bewildering), I had no idea that even water was to be avoided during Ramadan. And here I was thinking no meat on Fridays for Catholics was a trial.

[Sarevok]

So anyone got any statistics on how many muslim women actually wear the hijab ? Back here in Bangladesh I rarely see anyone with even an Iranian headscarve, though in the states the number seemed higher if I recall correctly. Which is not surprising since being muslim is hard work ! How many people do you think can go to a mosque five times a day and fast for a month ? It is no surprise most muslims don't wear the hijab when most of them probably don't pray once a week even.

Most muslims are muslims in name only. They are not any different from how most christians are not devout followers of their faith obeying the holy books as they are written.