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That seems implausible. Obviously there was evolutionary pressure on northern Europeans to tolerate lower levels of sunlight and no doubt adaption happened. How

That seems implausible. Obviously there was evolutionary pressure on northern Europeans to tolerate lower levels of sunlight and no doubt adaption happened. However, I expect even Swedes evolved in an environment that included more time outdoors than a modern Swedish office worker gets. So, in the absence of any actual evidence, I'd still expect a problem. On top of that, there is some evidence. Basically all the papers found by this search show some evidence of vitamin D deficiency in Swedish people: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=sweden+vitamin+d&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=sweden+vitamin...

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
The first two articles I get from that search looks at vitamin d and the older population, and the third[1] suggests that even in sub-arctic elevations "Adequate levels were found in 79.2%, more often in women (82.7%) than in men (75.6%). Only 0.7% of the population were vitamin D3–deficient but 23.1% of men and 17.1% of women had insufficient levels." That doesn't seem too damning. At the end of the day I don't know enough, so I'm not making the claim about Vitamin D quantities, but isn't the evidence that there was at least some form of adaptation evident based upon skin tone alone? https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/ijch.v74.27963 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/ijch.v74.27963
- nitrogen 7y ago
  I wonder, have any northern populations developed an instinctive winter hibernation adaptation?
- abainbridge 7y ago
  I already agreed there was adaption. I just can't see how there can have been adaption for an _indoor_ life at northern latitudes. That's doubly hard, compared to a traditional life in northern latitudes, right? Although, to argue against myself, I guess if you go far enough north, people won't be getting any sunlight in the winter even if they are outdoors all the time. People there must have adapted to that. I guess by eating things with lots of vitamin D.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago

The first two articles I get from that search looks at vitamin d and the older population, and the third[1] suggests that even in sub-arctic elevations "Adequate levels were found in 79.2%, more often in women (82.7%) than in men (75.6%). Only 0.7% of the population were vitamin D3–deficient but 23.1% of men and 17.1% of women had insufficient levels." That doesn't seem too damning. At the end of the day I don't know enough, so I'm not making the claim about Vitamin D quantities, but isn't the evidence that there was at least some form of adaptation evident based upon skin tone alone? https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/ijch.v74.27963 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/ijch.v74.27963

nitrogen 7y ago
I wonder, have any northern populations developed an instinctive winter hibernation adaptation?
abainbridge 7y ago
I already agreed there was adaption. I just can't see how there can have been adaption for an _indoor_ life at northern latitudes. That's doubly hard, compared to a traditional life in northern latitudes, right? Although, to argue against myself, I guess if you go far enough north, people won't be getting any sunlight in the winter even if they are outdoors all the time. People there must have adapted to that. I guess by eating things with lots of vitamin D.