Health and Nutrition Info
By Didrik J. Sopler, Ph.D, L.Ac.
07-14-06

More research on vitamin D

Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) may be important both for prevention as well as inclusion in treatment of prostate cancer.

The study I am referring to was conducted at a cancer center in Canada (Woo TC, et al. 2005). Even if it was a pilot study with a small group of participants the results were very interesting.

The participants were patients with prostate cancer in whom the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) were rising.

These patients were given 2000 IU of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) daily and monitored every 2-3 months. In 60% of the participants the PSA level decreased or remained unchanged after starting on the vitamin D3 regime. It was a statistical significant decrease in the rate of PSA after starting the vitamin D3 compared with that before the vitamin D3.

Recent studies also link low vitamin D levels with autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS).

Adequate vitamin D intake reduces inflammatory cytokines and inadequate vitamin D intake therefore contributes to inflammation and also increases the risk of developing MS (Mark BL, Carson JA. 2006).

You can find more references on the importance of vitamin D in a prior newsletter dated 09-28-2004. You can access this by logging on to www.tissuerecovery.com and scroll down until you get to "Past Issues" and click on that.

When supplementing with vitamin D it is important to use vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) which can be better utilized by the body compared to vitamin D2. You will find a reference for this also in the prior newsletter.

The BMJ formula contains 400 IU of vitamin D3. For those who want to take a higher dose we also have a separate formula of vitamin D3 with 1000 IU in each tablet.

Wishing you the best of health,

Didrik

References:

Mark BL, Carson JA. Vitamin D and autoimmune disease—implications for practice from the multiple sclerosis literature. J Am Diet Assoc. 2006 Mar; 106(3):418-24.

CWoo TC, Choo R, Jamieson M, Chander S, Vieth R. Pilot study: potential role of vitamin D (Cholecalciferol) in patients with PSA relapse after definitive therapy. Nutr Cancer. 2005;51(1):32-6.