Food for Thought #715

 

VITAMIN D: the sunshine vitamin’s powerful role in COLON CANCER prevention

 In a world where the sun's rays are often shunned for fear of skin damage, a growing body of research is shedding light on the critical role of vitamin D in preventing colon cancer. This "sunshine vitamin" is not just essential for bone health; it is a powerful ally in the fight against one of the most common and deadly forms of cancer. As urbanization and indoor lifestyles continue to limit our exposure to natural sunlight, the importance of vitamin D supplementation cannot be overstated. 

A groundbreaking study conducted by Hungarian researchers and published in the journal Nutrients has provided compelling evidence that vitamin D can significantly reduce the risk of colon cancer. The study, led by Professor János Tamás Varga from Semmelweis University, analyzed data from 50 previous studies involving over 1.3 million patients. The findings are nothing short of remarkable: individuals with adequate vitamin D intake were between 25% to 58% less likely to develop colon cancer.

Professor Varga emphasized the critical role of vitamin D in both the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer. "Vitamin D plays a critical role in the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer," he stated. "The results suggest that the effect of vitamin D may depend on factors such as the dosage, the individual condition of the patients, and the duration of treatment."

The study also found that taking a vitamin D supplement was specifically linked to a 4% reduced risk of colon cancer for every 2.5 micrograms consumed. This is particularly significant given that the NHS recommends every adult and child over the age of one get 10 micrograms of vitamin D each day. For those who may not get enough sunlight, especially during the darker winter months, supplements are a practical and affordable solution. High-street pharmacies offer vitamin D supplements for as little as 2p per pill, making it accessible to a wide range of people...<<<Read More>>>...

Health benefits of the Sun: Vitamin D can reduce the risk of cancer by as much as 67%

 Vitamin D is involved in the biology of all cells in your body, including your immune cells. A large number of studies have shown raising your vitamin D level can significantly reduce your risk of cancer.

Most recently, researchers found vitamin D and calcium supplementation lowered participants’ overall cancer risk by 30%.

Having a serum vitamin D level of at least 40 ng/ml reduces your risk for cancer by 67% compared to having a level of 20 ng/ml or less; most cancers occur in people with a vitamin D level between 10 and 40 ng/ml.

Thousands of studies have been done on the health effects of vitamin D, and research shows it is involved in the biology of all cells and tissues in your body, including your immune cells. Your cells actually need the active form of vitamin D to gain access to the genetic blueprints stored inside.

This is one of the reasons why vitamin D has the ability to impact such a wide variety of health problems – from foetal development to cancer. Unfortunately, despite being easy and inexpensive to address, vitamin D deficiency is an epidemic around the world.

It’s been estimated that as many as 90% of pregnant mothers and newborns in the sunny Mediterranean region are even deficient in vitamin D,1 thanks to chronic Sun avoidance. A simple mathematical error may also deter many Americans and Canadians from optimising their vitamin D.

The Institute of Medicine (“IOM”) recommends a mere 600 IUs of vitamin D per day for adults. As pointed out in a 2014 paper,2 the IOM underestimates the need by a factor of 10 due to a mathematical error, which has never been corrected.

Grassroots Health has created a petition for the IOM and Health Canada to re-evaluate its vitamin D guidelines and correct this mathematical error.3 You can help further this important cause by signing the petition on ipetitions.com.

More recent research 4 suggests it would require 9,600 IUs of vitamin D per day to get a majority (97.5%) of the population to reach 40 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml). The American Medical Association uses of 20 ng/ml as sufficient, but research shows 40 ng/mL should be the cutoff point for sufficiency in order to prevent a wide range of diseases, including cancer....<<<Read More>>>...

Science once again documents vitamin D’s anti-cancer properties

[Natural News]: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. As such, it is also one of the most widely studied human diseases by researchers.

Carsten Carlberg, a professor at the University of Eastern Finland, and Alberto Munoz, a professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, discussed the molecular basis of vitamin D signaling and its role in cancer prevention in a newly published review in Seminars in Cancer Biology.

Vitamin D is produced in the skin via the conversion of a direct cholesterol precursor called 7-dehydrocholesterol. This event is only triggered when the skin is exposed to UVB from the sun. Vitamin D can also be obtained from food sources, such as fatty fish, egg yolks, mushrooms and fortified food products. But because dietary options are limited, moderate sun exposure remains to be the best source of vitamin D.

Food-derived vitamin D is chemically inactive and needs to undergo two processes for activation. The first process occurs in the liver, where inert vitamin D is converted into 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, also known as calcidiol. As the most stable form of vitamin D, this metabolite is used as a biomarker for determining a person’s vitamin D status.

From the liver, calcidiol is processed either by the kidneys, epithelial cells (i.e., cells that line the surface of organs) or immune cells to produce the physiologically active 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Also called calcitriol, this active form of vitamin D acts as the high-affinity ligand — a molecule that binds to a specific protein — of the transcription factor, vitamin D receptor (VDR). Transcription factors are necessary for the conversion of DNA into RNA, which is the first step in protein synthesis.

Many types of cells contain VDRs in their cytoplasms. Vitamin D binding to a VDR enables the latter to modulate genes that encode for proteins necessary for the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis (cell death). The vitamin D-VDR complex also influences signaling pathways that affect the functions of important enzymes and ion channels....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>....