Vitamin D can cut cancer risk

Boosting vitamin D intake can dramatically reduce the risk of breast and other cancers, a new study has found, according to the HealthDay News.

The latest research adds to growing evidence that vitamin D can help protect against several forms of cancer as well as other diseases, Creighton University researchers said. However, an American Cancer Society spokeswoman has urged caution in interpreting the findings, saying it is premature to recommend that vitamins can reduce cancer risk.

Joan Lappe, a Creighton University professor of medicine and nursing and lead author of the study, said, “What we can say from our study is that 1,100 international units (IUs) a day of vitamin D definitely decreased the incidence of cancer.” The amount of the vitamin is nearly triple the recommended intake for the age group studied women 55 or older when the four-year study started. The study followed 1,179 postmenopausal candidates living in rural Nebraska. The women were free of cancers and were assigned into one of three groups. One group took 1,400 to 1,500 milligrams of supplementary calcium a day, another took the same amount of calcium plus 1,100 IUs of vitamin D daily and the third took placebo pills every day. After four years, women in the combination of vitamin D and calcium group showed a 60 percent lower risk of developing cancer compared to the placebo group. The calcium-only group had a 47 percent reduced risk. The researchers then ignored the first year’s data, assuming that some women may have entered the study with undiagnosed cancer. The results were more dramatic, Lappe said.

The last three years of the trial showed that, compared to the placebo group, the combination calcium-and-vitamin D group had a 77 percent reduced risk of cancers. The risk for the calcium-only group was essentially unchanged. The findings are published in the June edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In May, Harvard Medical School researchers reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine that high intake of vitamin D and calcium cut the risk of breast cancer by nearly one-third in premenopausal women, but not in postmenopausal women. Dr Michael Holick, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at the Boston University School of Medicine, said the Lappe study adds to growing evidence of the health and disease-fighting effects of vitamin D. “It’s very clear the data are significant,” he said.

Vitamin D is thought to act through the immune system to help prevent the formation of abnormal cells, Lappe said. She and Holick said vitamin D has also been found to reduce the risk of Type-I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure.

Both researchers think the current recommendations for daily vitamin D intake should be boosted. But Marji McCullough, strategic director of nutritional epidemiology for the American Cancer Society, said in a prepared statement that the society doesn’t currently recommend taking vitamin or mineral supplements to reduce cancer risk. She said it was, however, weighing the evidence. She said the Institute of medicine had declared 2,000 IUs as the upper tolerable, or safe, level for most people.

Vitamin D, which is important for strong bones, is found in salmon and other fish, and fortified milk and fortified cereals, among other foods. daily times monitor.

source:www.dailytimes.com.pk