Low levels of calcium and vitamin D may keep healthy cells from reproducing, and allow more aggressive cancer cells to take over.
Dr. Cedric F. Garland of the University of California San Diego, believes that cancer starts when cells stop communicating with one another, due in part to low levels of calcium and vitamin D. The silent cells separate from one another, lose their unique identity and stop reproducing healthy cells. These weakened cells must compete to survive against stronger cancer cells. This competition between disconnected weak and strong cells “creates the engine of cancer,” says the doctor, who believes that having healthy vitamin D levels may arrest cancer at the outset. Dr. Garland says that people can easily restore vitamin D to healthy levels and that most individuals can safely take in the range of 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day.
Reference: Annals of Epidemiology – Symposium in Print; 2009, Vol. 19, No. 7, 439-40.
Doctors advise U.S. Institutes of Medicine to raise vitamin D requirements
Critically ill patients, premenopausal women and most Americans are deficient in or need more vitamin D, and doctors want the U.S. to raise its recommendation, in four new studies.
A small study of critically ill patients led doctors to ask if low vitamin D levels cause, contribute to, or are an effect of major illness. Researchers found that nearly half of 42 people hospitalized in intensive care (ICU) were deficient in vitamin D, and the sicker they were, the lower their vitamin D levels. Three who died had the lowest vitamin D levels.
Study author, Dr. Paul Lee, believes body tissues demand more vitamin D during illness. “Vitamin D appears to have roles in controlling sugar, calcium, heart function, gut integrity, immunity, and defense against infection. (Because) patients in ICU suffer from different degrees of inflammation, infection, heart dysfunction, diarrhea and metabolic dysregulation, vitamin D deficiency may play a role in each of these common ICU conditions.”
In a vitamin D study, about 90 premenopausal women living in Maine, average age 22, took a placebo in the spring and summer, then half the group continued on placebo while the other half took 800 IU of vitamin D per day during fall and winter. Vitamin D in the placebo group remained low, but 80 percent of women in the vitamin D group had adequate vitamin D levels.
A study of more than 32,000 U.S. adults found that those with adequate levels of vitamin D fell by nearly half, to 23 percent from 45 percent, over the 16-year period from 1988 to 2004. During this time, researchers say people started spending less time outdoors and eating less healthy foods.
In a related U.S. study, scientists estimate that of the 83 million of those under age 21, 7.6 million are deficient in vitamin D (9 percent) and 51 million have low levels (61 percent). Doctors advising the U.S. Institutes of Medicine say that low vitamin D increases chances for heart disease and diabetes and want the agency to raise vitamin D requirements.
Reference: New England Journal of Medicine; April 30, 2009, Vol. 360, No. 18, 1912-4.
It’s not as if you don’t already have too much to think about, but here’s one more side effect of treatment you need to address: bone loss.
Premature menopause, triggered by chemo, can cause a sudden drop in estrogen levels and weaken bones. Vitamin D deficiency, a secondary cause of bone loss, affected 65 percent of women in a recent study of breast cancer patients. And now aromatase inhibitors, a common treatment which interferes with the body’s ability to produce the hormone estrogen, has been shown to decrease bone mineral density and increase the risk of fractures in postmenopausal women. But researchers have found that for many women, there are effective therapies.
A few minutes of daily sunlight can help your body make much of the vitamin D it needs. Is that bad for your skin as you age? Not if you don’t overdo it, many experts say, and the payoff could be huge. More than half of all women are thought to be deficient in vitamin D, and the latest evidence from John Hopkins University confirms that failing to get enough boosts your risk of death by 26 percent. That’s why it’s probably worth getting your levels checked with a simple blood test. If you’re low, eat more D-rich foods: dairy, fish like salmon and tuna, and fortified cereals and orange juice. Talk to your doctor about supplements, too.
