National Black Nurses Association
Leads Disease Prevention Effort with Vitamin D
March 27, 2008
"The San Diego Black Nurses Association looked at their major health priorities, namely reducing healthcare
disparities in the areas of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer and
influenza and listened to Carole Baggerly, Director of GrassrootsHealth, do a presentation on the disease prevention
capabilities of vitamin D and the group said 'we're your volunteer spokespeople!'" reported Syvera Hardy, Director of
Public Relations for the Nurses Association. "Anything that can have a potential reduction in the incidence of these
chronic diseases of 50% or more is critical to our community. We want to help get the word out to the public about the
need to solve the vitamin D deficiency situation. It’s urgent and its solution is inexpensive, easy and safe!"
The group has signed up as volunteers to assist in the 'Diagnosis & Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency' Seminar, a UCSD
School of Medicine Accredited CME seminar on April 9th, sponsored by GrassrootsHealth. "We designed the seminar to
address the need of the healthcare professionals to know how to treat the deficiency that they keep reading about in
the news media", said Ms. Baggerly. "We have spent a year traveling the country, speaking with the researchers, trying
to see what the message needed to be and came to the conclusion that everyone was interested in 'getting on with it!',
i.e., knowledgeably solving the deficiency problem."
"One hundred fifty people are currently signed up for the seminar and they’re coming from all over the country including
Puerto Rico, Finland and the UK as well! All are coming for a 5 hour seminar. We had hoped for 30-50 attendees and were
totally surprised when so many people signed up." The featured presenters are all experienced researchers and/or practitioners
using vitamin D with their patients. Cedric F. Garland, Dr. P.H., Moores UCSD Cancer Center, said “I didn’t think this call
to action would happen in my lifetime! Now, we can get on with preventing cancer!” Dr. Garland is one of the world’s leading
researchers on the impact of vitamin D and cancer. “It is not unlikely that the higher mortality rate amongst blacks from
cancer is due to a vitamin D deficiency,” says Dr. Garland.
“Low vitamin D occurs in approximately 42.4% of African American women vs 4.2% Caucasian women according to an NHANES III
study of women of child-bearing age, 1988-94” according to Bruce Hollis, PhD, another one of the seminar’s speakers. Based
on work that Dr. Hollis is doing at the Medical University of South Carolina, “essentially 100% of women of color are
vitamin D insufficient during pregnancy. Low vitamin D is a risk factor for a diverse range of disorders from type 1
diabetes to cancer.”
According to Ms. Hardy, fifteen of the members of the San Diego Black Nurses Association are attending the seminar so
they can be better informed about how to take this message to their community. “We will be taking this information to
our National Conference in August, that’s for sure!” says Ms. Hardy. GrassrootsHealth will be working with the nurses’
group to provide vitamin D expertise and resources for their promotion efforts.
For Information contact:
Carole Baggerly
Director, GrassrootsHealth
619-823-7062
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Cedric F. Garland, Dr. P.H., F.A.C.E.
Professor
Department of Family and Preventive Medicine
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0631
(619) 980-2965/ (858) 534-0520
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Syvera Hardy, RN
San Diego Black Nurses Association
858-279-1935
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Bruce W. Hollis, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina 29425
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