Posted on 02/12/2008 2:54:06 PM PST by blam
A Ray Of Sunshine In The Fight Against Cancer: Vitamin D May Help
Dalhousie's Dr. Lousie Parker holds a vitamin D pill. (Credit: Danny Abriel.)
ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2008) — It sounds too good to be true … a little inexpensive pill that could block the development of some cancers, strengthen bones, prevent multiple sclerosis and alleviate winter depression.
But it’s not science fiction. The “new aspirin” could be Vitamin D. Just as we discovered that aspirin can guard against heart disease, Vitamin D could become a useful weapon in the fight against MS, osteoporosis, mild depression and one of the most devastating diseases of our time – cancer.
“As time has gone by, Vitamin D has raised its head as a sort of ambrosia for cancers,” says Dr. Louise Parker, an epidemiologist and a world expert in the environmental exposures that can lead to cancer. Or, in the case of Vitamin D, the lack of exposure.
“One of the most important sources of Vitamin D is from the sun and through your skin,” says Dr. Parker.
“Many parts of Canada don’t get much sun in the winter. We’ve also been telling people to cover up and use sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. Sunscreen actually impairs your (skin’s ability) to make Vitamin D.”
So the Canadian Cancer Society recommends that during the winter, Canadians take at least 1,000 units a day of Vitamin D, dubbed “the sunshine vitamin.”
Dr. Parker says 1,000 units a day is well beyond what you can obtain from your diet. Vitamin D is a bit of a rare vitamin, appearing only in fatty fish, cod liver oil and egg yolks. Even if you were to sunbathe in southern climates, you would not take in 1,000 units.
“If you were to lie naked on a beach in the Bahamas, and I don’t recommend that because of skin cancer, you cannot get up to the equivalent of 1,000 units of Vitamin D a day,” says Dr. Parker.
She notes Vitamin D as a factor is turning up in study after study. It turns out people with lung and colon cancer are Vitamin D deficient. And it helps the body absorb calcium. In a study examining whether women who took Vitamin D had a lower risk of osteoporosis, it was found the women taking Vitamin D had stronger bones than those who did not take the vitamin. Years later, researchers went back to that study and found that the women who took Vitamin D also had fewer cancers.
But before Vitamin D becomes the “new aspirin,” more research needs to be carried out.
Vitamin D works in very complicated ways, she says. It changes the way cells work. In fact, there is medical speculation that it may block cancer cell proliferation or improve immune system functions. But its role is not fully understood.
Lifestyle also has to be part of the equation. Dr. Parker is looking at how obesity, which we know can cause cancer, and exercise, which we know prevents cancer, could interact with Vitamin D. “At the population level, I am trying to understand how all these things fit together,” says Dr. Parker. “It’s very complex.” Dr. Parker describes it as looking for a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. “We know some of the jigsaw pieces, but not all,” she says.
Meanwhile, there is very little evidence that taking Vitamin D can harm you. Perhaps in huge doses it could cause kidney stones, but that has not been proven.
“On the average, 1,000 units a day is safe and is probably effective in reducing the risk of colon cancer, and maybe other cancers as well,” says Dr. Parker.
So does she take Vitamin D and recommend it? Absolutely. “I take 1,000 units of Vitamin D – one day on and one day off,” she says.
Adapted from materials provided by Dalhousie University, via Newswise.
Somebody needs to make their minds up! Last week there was an article that stated that Vitamin D supplements were a waste of time and the true benefits of Vitamin D came from the type produced by your own body.
Since I've increased my intake of Vit D, I've not had a cold. It's also called nature's antibiotic.
I guess I’ll have to add vitamin D to my healthy, balanced diet of red wine and chocolate.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1960227/posts
Here’s the article which suggests that Vitamin D supplementation may not be beneficial. It is also from Science Daily.
Whoever wrote that down doesn’t know their chemistry.
The Vitamin D you buy can have two forms:
Ergocalciferol (plant based) or
Cholecalciferol (animal based).
The first, the ergo kind, is commonly called vitamin D2. The second is called vitamin D3.
If you buy the animal based vitamin D3, it is EXACTLY the kind of vitamin D that gets made in your skin. (Made, btw, from that horrid, nasty chemical -— CHOLESTEROL)!!
But even D3 or D2 are not the most important forms. The D3 or D2 wander around until they are hydrolyzed in the liver. That results in the most potent form.
I know, I posted it but can't find it now.
Carlson’s LEMON FLAVORED Cod Liver OIL!!!! You get the Vitamin D, PLUS you get the EFA’s and OMEGA 3’s.....I’ve been pushing it on everyone I know.....
I used to take D supplements but switched to natural sunlight as my source and have never felt better. D is definitely underrated, especially for a mild case of the blues.
BTW I’m always very interested in your posts. Keep up the great work!
Until full blown global warming kicks in, I take a D3 supplement during the winter.
lemon flavored cod liver oil pusher
:)
YEP....I’m a “pusher!” Don’t tell the police!
The doctor that suggested that Vit D doesn’t help because Vit D use has increased is somewhat out of touch, I think.
I don’t know many people who go out of their way to take Vit D. The 400 units that come in most suppliments are just the US RDA, the MINIMUM daily requirement.
The other thing is, is that for years now, the medical field has been telling everyone to avoid the sun and I DO know lots of people who follow that advice. Since the population in general isn’t getting the vitamin D from the sun that they need, that correlates nicely with the increase in cancer and other conditions.
Did he also do a study on those who got sick to find out what their specific Vit D intake was to verify his speculation?
You need supplements in the winter. Not only is the sun not strong enough in the north, you have to be able to see it, first.
Kind of interesting, since I have been doing tanning beds especially in the winter, I have felt much better than before. I usually go twice a week.
The best Omega 3 stuff I’ve tried (and I’m speaking here from how I feel and my skin and hair being better) is:
Flax oil
Trouble is, it’s very fragile. But even when I buy the best I can find, refrigerated, cold off the shelf, flax oil has a drawback.
It tastes like mold gone bad!!
The studies on alpha lineolic acid are pretty convincing.
Krill oil baby!!
Yes....when we were living in Prince Albert, Sask. we started using ground flax....still give it to our dog, and occasionally use it in baking....but you don’t get the Vit. D, and the taste is a problem.
A very important note about D3, as it relates to the “cytokine storm” effect, a lethal characteristic of avian flu:
“There’s some evidence, by no means conclusive, that circulating 25-OH-vitamin-D3 (calcidiol) is converted by pulmonary alveolar macrophages to 1{alpha},25-OH(2)-vitamin-D3 (calcitriol) and that in this context calcitriol serves as a paracrine hormone that reduces the inflammatory activity of these macrophages. On these hypotheses, macrophages’ sensitivity to paracrine calcitriol may restrain them from producing the “cytokine storm.”
Thus, proper immune response to an influenzal infection may require vitamin-D3 sufficiency so that there will be enough circulating calcidiol to allow its uptake and conversion to calcitriol by macrophages at the infection site.
John Cannell, M.D., author of the newsletter and of the website, suggests targeting 50 ng/ml as a healthy level of circulating 25-OH-vitamin-D3 (calcidiol).
He recommends moderate exposure to ultraviolet B from sunlight or sunlamps, or consumption of vitamin D3 in food or supplements sufficient to raise circulating calcidiol to the target.
Cannell’s analysis is crying out for attention under our present circumstances. As he explains, most people living in industrialized societies outside the tropics are deficient in vitamin D3, and becoming vitamin-D3 replete appears to confer numerous benefits, whether or not protection from cytokine storm induced by macrophagic overactivity is one of them.
See the very numerous links at http://www.cholecalciferol-council.com
for more information.
I think if ya start eating krills it’s gonna make the Klingons mad!!
marker
bfl
Vitamin D gets an A in my book.
Must be that the first batch I got was going rancid or something - I recently did get the Barleans, and it is much, much easier on the taste buds!
Something else that’s supposed to be very good for you - I love em, but some have a problem - good old fashioned in the can sardines.
I eat them ocassionally...I found some with mustard and dill that are real good.
Mine was 24 so the Doctor put me on 2,000 in the morning and 2,000 in the evening. It has helped me with depression.
I know this is an older thread but thought that I would comment anyway.
I could eat them suckers three times a day - and have them for a snack in between!
I like the hot ones. Have a can of those along with some scrambled eggs and garlic bread. Yum!
Hmmm.... pretty often I fly in my dreams... between that and liking fish, I musta been a bird in a previous life!
Have you been retested yet? Just curious. We have a friend who had quad bypass who says the fish oil he now takes has made him “feel” better, also.
No, I have not been retested. This was done in September, 2007 and I hadn’t thought about getting retested until this coming September.
I take fish oil and even SAMe for the depression and overall body achiness. There was a time when I felt like I had the flu 24/7. Its been a great help. Thank God for supplements.
I don’t know whether you are male or female....BUT...if you are female you might want to get your hormones tested (progesterone, dhea, pregnenelone, testosterone, estrogen)....or, actually, even if you are male, also test.
I’m female. My Doctor prescribes bio-identical hormones. I am taking natural progesterone now, armour thyroid and I am in my mid 50’s. Wish I would have gone to see him in my early 40’s instead of 5 years ago.
For my next bloodwork, I’ll ask them to test for the things you mentioned. Thanks
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