 |
 |
More evidence on the importance of vitamin D in cancer prevention The American Cancer Society estimates that this year 32,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed. This is a very serious cancer with few survivors, but there is now evidence that a simple thing such as taking vitamin D can decrease the risk of getting it substantially. In a large study, the participants included 46,771 men between the age of 40 and 75 years and 75,427 women between the age of 38 and 65 years of age, were followed for 14 to 16 years. (Skinner H.G., et al., 2006). The researchers found that in this large population higher intake of vitamin D were associated with a lower risk for pancreatic cancer. The people who took 400 IU of vitamin D per day had a 43 percent lower risk of pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is not the only cancer affected by vitamin D. It has been documented that patients with renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer) had lower serum levels of vitamin D when compared with a control group. (Fujioka T., et al., 2000) The patients who had rapid growth tumors also had lower levels of vitamin D than patients who had slow growth tumors. The researchers stated that their data suggested that a decrease in vitamin D level is one of the factors for development and progression of kidney cancer, and vitamin D may help to prevent it. Colorectal cancer also seems to respond to vitamin D. The metabolite of vitamin D called 1 alpha, 25-Dihydroxy vitamin D3 has shown to induce apoptosis (cell death) in colorectal cancer cells (Diaz GD. et al., 2000). Vitamin D has been known for a long time to be important for bone formation, but vitamin D is also important for many other reasons as well. Some of these other areas were covered in prior newsletters and can be accessed by logging onto www.tissuerecovery.com and clicking on past issues. When taking vitamin D you should take Vitamin D3 which is utilized better by the body than Vitamin D2. The minimum amount of Vitamin D you should take per day is 400 IU, which also is the amount that lowered the risk for pancreatic cancer almost 50 percent. This is also the amount of vitamin D3 you find in the BMJ formula, another good reason for using the BMJ. BioPro also has vitamin D3 by itself for those who need to take more than 400 IU per day.
Wishing you the best of health, Didrik
References:
Diaz GD, Paraskeva C, Thomas MG, Binderup L, Hague A. Apoptosis is induced by the active metabolite of vitamin D3 and its analogue EB1089 in colorectal adenoma and carcinoma cells: possible implications for prevention and therapy. Cancer Res. 2000 Apr 15;60(8):2304-12. |
 |
 |