Vitamin D - are you getting enough

Research in 2012 in Cancer Causes and Control presented findings that former/never smokers were 44 per cent less likely to die from lung cancer if they had blood levels of vitamin D above 44nmo/litre. That applied to whether or not they had the cancer - it seems to prevent, and reduce deaths.

        * In 2013, researchers from St Louis University showed that women with a BRCA1 mutation are more likely to develop an aggressive breast cancer but vitamin D can block this pathway. BRCA1 is not just behind breast cancer but other cancers too like some prostate cancer. Clinical trials are now planned.

        * Another 2013 study, this time in the Journal of Cellular Biology showed that vitamin D blocks cathapsin L which makes cells grow uncontrollably in cancers.

The vitamin that works like a hormone

At CANCERactive we believe vitamin D is an important ingredient in any anti-cancer package. You will derive it from sunshine. A week lying on a beach will provide about 70,000 International Units, or IUs. 5,000 is the daily recommended level for people with cancer. Vitamin D may sound like a vitamin, but it acts more like a hormone with receptor sites on healthy cells and even more on cancer cells.  Let´s look at three of the areas in which it acts:

1. Low vitamin D levels are linked with higher rates of cancer

The Boston Medical School has completed a great many research studies on vitamin D. Read the following statement from their Professor Hollick, "If women obtained adequate levels of vitamin D there would be 25 per cent less deaths from breast cancer.

Hollick is not alone in stressing the importance for women and breast cancer.  St Georges Hospital in London calculated from their studies that women with low levels of vitamin D in their breast tissue have a 354 per cent greater risk of breast cancer. Translated into English this means they have 4 and a half times the breast cancer risk.