The Sunshine Vitamin and Cancer

Filed in archive Cancer, General on June 8, 2007

An article from CBC Canada has good news in the continuing search for a prevention for cancer:

Building hope that one pill can prevent many cancers, vitamin D cut the risk of several types of cancer by 60 per cent overall for older women in the most rigorous study yet.

The new research strengthens the case made by some specialists that vitamin D may be a powerful cancer preventive and most people should get more of it.

RespiteMatch.com tells us:

There's more evidence suggesting that vitamin D may be protective against breast cancer progression, but the relationship remains less than definitive, researchers here said.

Traditional Naturopath has more on the subject:

"For decades, researchers have puzzled over why rich northern countries have cancer rates many times higher than those in developing countries - and many have laid the blame on dangerous pollutants spewed out by industry. But research into vitamin D is suggesting both a plausible answer to this medical puzzle and a heretical notion: that cancers and other disorders in rich countries aren't caused mainly by pollutants but by a vitamin deficiency known to be less acute or even non-existent in poor nations."

However, don't take this as a reason to go to the beach and soak up those rays. Dr. Len's Cancer Blog warns:

The fear among many of us was that the story would get muddled, and that a considerable amount of effort that has gone into cancer prevention relative to excess sun exposure would go by the wayside as everyone headed to the beach to increase their vitamin D, their tans, and their sunburns.