Higher Vitamin D = Lower Cancer Risk

Previous research found that avitamin Dlevel of 50 ng/ml was associated with a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer.5Breast cancer patients with an average vitamin D level of 30 ng/ml were also twice as likely to survive compared to women with low levels (average 17 ng/ml).6Most recently, researchers at University of California, San DiegoSchool of Medicine report that raising your serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) to 40ng/ml can slash your risk of all invasive cancers by 67 percent

How Does Vitamin D Help Protect Against Cancer?Vitamin D influences virtually every cell in your body, and is absolutely crucial to radically reduce your risk of cancer. Your organs can convert the vitamin D in your bloodstream into calcitriol,which is the hormonal or activated version of vitamin D. Your organs then use it to repair damage, including that from cancer cells. Vitamin D also triggers apoptosis (cell death) in cancer cells.According to Garland, in nearly all forms of breast cancer, vitamin D affects the structure of your epithelial cells. These cells are held together by a glue-like substance called E-cadherin, which provides structure to the cell. E-cadherin is made up of mostly vitamin D and calcium. If you don't have adequate vitamin D, that structure comes apart and those cells do what they are programmed to do in order to survive — they go forth and multiply.If this cell proliferation gets out of control, you may end up with cancer. If you have breast cancer in progress, the addition of vitamin D can help stop cancer cells in their tracks by replenishing E-cadherin. Once cancer growth is slowed, your immune system can begin to get ahead of the cancer cells, because it doesn't have to deal with such an overabundance of them. It's just disposing of the leftovers.Low Vitamin D Predicts Aggressive Prostate CancerIn related news, researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine recently discovered that men diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer have vitamin D levels below 23 ng/ml. According to this study, vitamin D may actually be used asa biomarker to predict the aggressiveness of prostate cancer.As noted in a University press release:15"The relationship between vitamin D and prostate cancer may explain some disparities seen in prostate cancer, especially among African American men. Prior research...showed African American men who live in low sunlight locations are upto 1½ times more likely to have vitamin D deficiency than Caucasian men.But because vitamin D is a biomarker for bone health and aggressiveness of other diseases, all men should check their levels, [lead investigator Dr. Adam] Murphy said. "All men should be replenishing their vitamin D to normal levels," Murphy said. "It's smart preventive health care."Vitamin D Dramatically Improves Heart FunctionYet another recent study found that vitamin D has "nothing short of amazing" ability to improve heart function in those with chronic heart failure. The five-year long trial included 160 patients undergoing conventionaltreatment for chronic heart failure;half of them were given a vitamin D3 supplement, the other half received a placebo in addition to their standard of care. After one year, the vitamin D group experienced significant improvement in heart function compared to the placebo group. As reported by The Independent:16"Dr Klaus Witte, who led the...research project, toldThe Independentthe improvements seen in patients taking the vitamin were "nothing short of amazing," and called his team's findings a"significant breakthrough"...Researchers made ultrasound scans of participants' hearts and measured the how much blood was being pumped with each heartbeat, to get a figure called ejection fraction. The ejection fraction of a healthy person is usually around 60 to 70 per cent, but it dropped to anaverage of 26 per cent among the patients enrolled in the study.For those who took vitamin D3, the ejection fraction was improved from 26 to 34 per cent, while the rest experienced not change. For some patients, this discovery means regularly taking vitamin D3 could lessen the need for them to be fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), which can correct dangerous heart rhythms."The researchers note that even though they used a vitamin D3 supplement in this study, exposure to sunlight "would likelyproduce the same results," for the simple reason that it's all about achieving a higher vitamin D serum level. Comparing our modern lifestyle to that of ancient humans who spent far more time outdoors, the researchers link our current deficiency epidemic to chronic sun avoidance.Current Advice to Avoid SunExposure Seriously Endangers Your HealthIndeed, dermatologists have severely compromised the public health by fighting an irrational anddangerous war against UV exposure, be it from the sun or UVlight devices. Disease statistics reveal the sun-scare campaign has really been taken too far. At present, the U.S. Surgeon General,17,18the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), and many other cancer organizations recommendcomplete and total sun avoidancein order to prevent skin cancer.The AAD will not even acknowledge different recommendations based on skin type, even though it's widely recognized that darker skinned individuals need far more UV exposure in order to produce vitamin D in their skin. Adding insult to injury, the U.S. Preventative Task Force suggestsvitamin D testing is unnecessary, and both the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the American Medical Association (AMA) recommend vitamin D serum levels and vitamin D intake levels that are farbelow ideal based on the evidence in the medical literature.The IOM recommends taking just 600 IUs of vitamin D a day up to age 70. But as pointed out in a 2014 paper,19the IOM underestimates the need by afactor of 10due to amathematicalerror. This error has never been addressed. Moreover, research20suggests it would require 9,600 IU's of vitamin D per day to get a majority (97.5 percent) of the population to reach 40 ng/ml. Meanwhile, the AMA uses of 20ng/ml as sufficient, but as shown in the featured study, this level significantly increases your risk for cancer; 40 ng/ml is really the cutoff point for sufficiency in order to prevent a wide range of diseases
.Sun Avoidance Equals Smoking in Terms of Mortality Risk Sun avoidance actually increases your risk of death very similar to that of smoking. That was the conclusion of a recent"competing risk" analysis by Swedish researchers, who found that while women with active sun exposure habits had a higher risk of melanoma compared to sun avoiders, they also had a lower risk of mortality from far more deadly diseases than melanoma, including cardiovascular disease.
According to the authors:21"Nonsmokers who avoided sun exposure had a life expectancy similar to smokers in the highest sun exposure group, indicating that avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking. Compared to the highest sun exposure group, life expectancy of avoiders of sun exposure was reduced by 0.6–2.1 years." When you look at the overall picture, it's clear to see that we are building the perfect storm for serious negative health outcomes due to vitamin D deficiency