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milestogo

(16,829 posts)
Thu May 28, 2020, 12:36 PM May 2020

Blood clots fill lungs of black coronavirus victims, study finds

Last edited Thu May 28, 2020, 05:58 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: CNN

CNN) Careful autopsies of 10 African-American victims of coronavirus show their lungs were clogged with blood clots, researchers reported Wednesday.

All 10 patients had underlying conditions that have been shown to worsen infection, including high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. But genetic factors could also be at play, the team at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine said.

The findings, published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine, may help explain why blacks are suffering so much more from Covid-19 in the US and in some other countries such as Britain, the researchers said.

"We found that the small vessels and capillaries in the lungs were obstructed by blood clots and associated hemorrhage that significantly contributed to decompensation and death in these patients," Dr. Richard Vander Heide, head of pathology at the medical school, said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/health/coronavirus-african-americans-new-orleans/index.html

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AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)
1. It seems like there may end up being a link between this and some factor that leads to
Thu May 28, 2020, 01:12 PM
May 2020

the prevalence of sickle cell anemia or something.

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
5. I know POC living at high latitudes need to monitor their D levels
Thu May 28, 2020, 02:25 PM
May 2020

and strongly suspect vitamin D depletion in POC is a factor, whether a weak or strong one. It certainly warrants some study, if somebody out there is looking for a thesis topic.

So if you're not bioluminscent like I am, get those levels checked, especially if you can't tolerate dairy foods, something I do share. D3 supplements are cheap and widely available in the US, somewhat less so in the UK.

Sickle cell trait could very well be a co morbidity, but I'd expect them to mention that one.

LiberalArkie

(15,686 posts)
6. Darker skinned people are not effective at producing vitamin D.
Thu May 28, 2020, 04:17 PM
May 2020

I was reading that a person needs to be able to tan to produce a large amount of Vitamin D.



Warpy

(110,913 posts)
7. If you're interested in this sort of thing
Thu May 28, 2020, 04:26 PM
May 2020

I'll recommend reading up on the work of Dr. Nina Jablonski. There are also a few lectures posted over at You Tube that give an overview and they are fascinating.

She is an anthropologist with a toe dipped in evolutionary biology. She's very much worth looking up.

And I'm not kidding about the thesis topic. While I expect the effect to be minor, I imagine it is quite measurable.

Bearware

(151 posts)
13. Darker-skinned people ARE EFFECTIVE at producing vitamin D
Mon Jun 1, 2020, 09:51 PM
Jun 2020

They can produce as much vitamin D as lighter-skinned people but the extra melanin in their skin (an excellent sunscreen) means it can take longer than for a paler person.

I prefer to get my information from https://www.grassrootshealth.net/. This is a site used by vitamin D researchers, many of whom are endocrinologists (active vitamin D is a hormone).

The site has the latest information, the best studies, and the researchers are the most knowledgeable about vitamin D.

lapfog_1

(29,166 posts)
3. They should try to correlate this with vitamin D.
Thu May 28, 2020, 01:58 PM
May 2020

vitamin D is made in sunlight... skin color makes a difference in how much vitamin D is made from the same exposure to sunlight.

It has been shown that vitamin D plays a role in respiratory infections.

I am taking Vitamin D supplement now in addition to my standard senior men's vitamin because I hardly ever go outside anymore.

I_UndergroundPanther

(12,452 posts)
12. I have pale skin
Fri May 29, 2020, 12:20 AM
May 2020

I don't tan I burn. I take prescription vitamin D.
Have had issues with D my whole life.

Shit I really have alot of risk factors for Covid discovered another one in this thread. It scares me sometimes.

I didn't know people with dark skin make less vitamin D,that's terrible. I worry about POC and the covid.

Igel

(35,197 posts)
8. Spidey sense says no.
Thu May 28, 2020, 04:52 PM
May 2020

More likely related to blood pressure control systems, the kind of thing that causes African-Americans to have high blood pressure because of greater sodium retention.

But what do I know?

At least the word "genetic" could get mentioned. There are genetic research programs going on (and have been since early April) to see if part of the difference is gene related. For example, there are ACE2 receptor variants (which necessarily requires gene differences) that seem to be related to disease severity (but I'm not sure that those are necessarily related directly to "race&quot .

eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
11. Glad to see someone is investigating this in a systematic way.
Thu May 28, 2020, 11:15 PM
May 2020

I had been wondering if there was truly something other than social factors involved -- the discrepancies in mortality are just too high, I thought. My first guess as to possible causes doesn't seem to be it, which is too bad in a way, because there doesn't seem to be much that can be done about it if it's genetic, other than testing.

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