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Somali children in Sweden are 3-4x more likely to be Autistic than Swedish children: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23221308_Prevalence_of_autism_in_

Somali children in Sweden are 3-4x more likely to be Autistic than Swedish children: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23221308_Prevalence_of_autism_in_children_born_to_Somali_parents_living_in_Sweden_A_brief_report https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23221308_Prevalence... 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women: https://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/vitamin-dbinding-protein-in-somali-women-living-in-sweden-was-low-and-unaffectedby-treatment-8802.html https://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/vitamin-dbinding-pr...

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women You have to be careful with those claims; I believe "Vitamin D deficiency" is one of the medical metrics that isn't race-normed. But there's no reason to expect Somalis to have the same natural level of Vitamin D that Swedes do.
- rarefied_tomato 6y ago
  Given the terrible health consequences of deficiency, I think assuming racial difference in healthy vitamin D levels is a more dangerous claim that requires a burden of proof. Melanin absorbs the UV light our bodies use to produce vitamin D. It is an important public health issue for people with darker skin living in temperate or polar areas to get enough vitamin D. Lack of vitamin D for people with darker skin is the inverse of paler people being at risk of burns in sunny areas.
selimthegrim 6y ago
I thought a complaint that Somalis in Minnesota had was that autism in their kids was disproportionately (not sure about exact meaning of this term) "low-functioning"
- astrange 6y ago
  Low/high functioning isn't really a specific medical term, but basically it just means if you can live on your own or not. If you're not only high functioning but gifted* then you're "twice exceptional". * school term that supposedly means exceptionally intelligent, sometimes gets you to a different school/class for smart kids, but actually it's like special education for kids too fast/nerdy to be in regular classes without going nuts
adanto6840 6y ago
Really interesting, ty. Agree with the sibling comments, needs normalization of course, but if that doesn't warrant funding I'm not sure what does. If I can throw a few bucks at it, please let me know how!
astrange 6y ago
Right, I remembered this because I know an autistic Swedish person whose mother was an Iranian immigrant, just not what the evidence was.
pvaldes 6y ago
This is a very good example of how difficult can be the biology sometimes. Different social strata. Parents working in different jobs, maybe more prone to go in contact with dangerous substances or living in more contaminated areas. Different diets, maybe relying more in very cheap food choices. Different country, with different resources and laws that could lead this women to not be fully aware of the local opportunities available in their pregnancy, or how to ask for their rights. Recent campaigns of hate against immigrants in Swedden, that could lead to a worse treatment in hospitals by one or a few racist members of the staff. Not able to pay for a premium healthcare while giving birth. And immigrants live in countries with poor environmental laws and endure a dangerous travel that can damage their health. Dangerous levels of heavy metals were found in workers that had to burn hardware and recycle computers in a third world country to pay for their travel to Europe, for example. Somali people also eat a lot of migrant fish (aka: mercury with fins). Vitamin D is just one in a thousand of possible explanations
- ArkanExplorer 6y ago
  Lets call a spade a spade. There are evolutionary adaptations to the local environment of Northern Europe that Africans lack: light skin, light hair, light eyes. There are cultural aspects such as the wearing of veils for women. This has a significant impact on Vitamin D generation from the available sunlight. https://sunburnmap.com/ https://sunburnmap.com/ - March 2021, a central European city will give saturation-level Vitamin D generation (before redness appears from preliminary sunburn) to a person with light features in 22 minutes, or someone with the darkest features in 1h40 minutes. Just as Northern Europeans are evolutionarily and culturally poorly adapted to central Africa, so are Africans to Northern Europe.
  - astrange 6y ago
    This is nothing and easily compensated by changing your diet even if you don’t go outside more often. There’s no valid results from genetics unless you remember diet and environment come after it. So if there’s a problem I’d say it’s because we’re not giving them supplements.

thaumasiotes 6y ago

> 73% of pregnant Somali women in Sweden are Vitamin D deficient vs 5% of pregnant Swedish women You have to be careful with those claims; I believe "Vitamin D deficiency" is one of the medical metrics that isn't race-normed. But there's no reason to expect Somalis to have the same natural level of Vitamin D that Swedes do.

rarefied_tomato 6y ago
Given the terrible health consequences of deficiency, I think assuming racial difference in healthy vitamin D levels is a more dangerous claim that requires a burden of proof. Melanin absorbs the UV light our bodies use to produce vitamin D. It is an important public health issue for people with darker skin living in temperate or polar areas to get enough vitamin D. Lack of vitamin D for people with darker skin is the inverse of paler people being at risk of burns in sunny areas.

selimthegrim 6y ago

I thought a complaint that Somalis in Minnesota had was that autism in their kids was disproportionately (not sure about exact meaning of this term) "low-functioning"

astrange 6y ago
Low/high functioning isn't really a specific medical term, but basically it just means if you can live on your own or not. If you're not only high functioning but gifted* then you're "twice exceptional". * school term that supposedly means exceptionally intelligent, sometimes gets you to a different school/class for smart kids, but actually it's like special education for kids too fast/nerdy to be in regular classes without going nuts

adanto6840 6y ago

Really interesting, ty. Agree with the sibling comments, needs normalization of course, but if that doesn't warrant funding I'm not sure what does. If I can throw a few bucks at it, please let me know how!

astrange 6y ago

Right, I remembered this because I know an autistic Swedish person whose mother was an Iranian immigrant, just not what the evidence was.

pvaldes 6y ago

This is a very good example of how difficult can be the biology sometimes. Different social strata. Parents working in different jobs, maybe more prone to go in contact with dangerous substances or living in more contaminated areas. Different diets, maybe relying more in very cheap food choices. Different country, with different resources and laws that could lead this women to not be fully aware of the local opportunities available in their pregnancy, or how to ask for their rights. Recent campaigns of hate against immigrants in Swedden, that could lead to a worse treatment in hospitals by one or a few racist members of the staff. Not able to pay for a premium healthcare while giving birth. And immigrants live in countries with poor environmental laws and endure a dangerous travel that can damage their health. Dangerous levels of heavy metals were found in workers that had to burn hardware and recycle computers in a third world country to pay for their travel to Europe, for example. Somali people also eat a lot of migrant fish (aka: mercury with fins). Vitamin D is just one in a thousand of possible explanations

ArkanExplorer 6y ago
Lets call a spade a spade. There are evolutionary adaptations to the local environment of Northern Europe that Africans lack: light skin, light hair, light eyes. There are cultural aspects such as the wearing of veils for women. This has a significant impact on Vitamin D generation from the available sunlight. https://sunburnmap.com/ https://sunburnmap.com/ - March 2021, a central European city will give saturation-level Vitamin D generation (before redness appears from preliminary sunburn) to a person with light features in 22 minutes, or someone with the darkest features in 1h40 minutes. Just as Northern Europeans are evolutionarily and culturally poorly adapted to central Africa, so are Africans to Northern Europe.
- astrange 6y ago
  This is nothing and easily compensated by changing your diet even if you don’t go outside more often. There’s no valid results from genetics unless you remember diet and environment come after it. So if there’s a problem I’d say it’s because we’re not giving them supplements.