Posted on 04/18/2023 9:39:44 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Vitamin D deficiency could be the reason African American men experience more aggressive prostate cancer at a younger age compared with European American men, new research suggests. The study could pave the way for revised nutritional guidelines.
While previous research has investigated vitamin D in the context of health disparities, this is the first study to look at its functions in a genome-wide manner in African American versus European American men.
"African American men are more likely than European American men to develop prostate cancer, and are twice as likely to die from the disease," said Moray Campbell, Ph.D. "Large-scale studies have shown that differences in access to health care do not fully account for this health disparity, and our study identifies biological factors that might explain it."
Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, which is essential for bone health, but it also helps stimulate the maturation of cells, Campbell said. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells do not mature and die. They continue to divide, creating more and more abnormal cells.
"Without sufficient levels of vitamin D to cause them to mature, the cells in a tumor continue to multiply out of control," Campbell said.
Campbell and fellow investigators found that the vitamin D receptor, a protein that helps the body use vitamin D, appears to have adapted differently in people of African ancestry.
"The forebears of African American and European American men adapted to the climates where they originated," Campbell said. "African men retain higher melanin levels in the skin to protect against the strong sun—which also helps the body produce vitamin D. Because of this, their descendants in the U.S., which receives fewer hours per year of bright sunshine than African countries do, are often vitamin D deficient."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Please consider getting tested. It’s cheap and will help everyone know if they need to correct their Vitamin D intake.
Nowadays everyone does, as we spend a greater deal of time indoors. Even if we get sun through windows its often filtered light. Further most peoples diets are crap today.
So the vast majority of people are vitamin d deficient.
Take Vitamin D if you’re having ANY health issues.
Buy it in the store and take 10 times the recommended for a week (you’d have to take thousands of time more to be harmful)
If you’re deficient, just taking the minimum daily keeps you deficient. You’ve got to build it up.
You know you are getting enough Vitamin D when you start having vivid and pleasant dreams.
I’ve read where TOO much D all at once before bedtime MAY lead to nightmares instead of pleasant dreams, but I have not experienced that myself.
>Buy it in the store and take 10 times the recommended for a week (you’d have to take thousands of time more to be harmful
And supplant it with vitamin k so your body processes it well
I’ve been onboard the D Train for years...K2 as well. My recent PSA test results were so low it was comical. Coincidence? Who cares. It works for me.
>I’ve been onboard the D Train for years...K2 as well. My recent PSA test results were so low it was comical. Coincidence? Who cares. It works for me.
Yeah, I caught delta COVID two years ago and was taking a lot of vitamin D (+ivermectin and quercetin). It was over in a day.
He said 40-60 ng/dl is the target.
BTW, as the article points out, Vit D helps us absorb calcium from food. The next consideration is where to put that Ca, in the bones (where it belongs) or in the arteries?
That's where vitamin K2 comes in, and assists in directing Ca into bones and teeth.
Since our culture has devolved into social media/work-from-home/cave dwellers, vitamin D deficiencies seem to be involved in a lot of afflictions these days…
Something did not look right about that ng/dl figure so ai looked up blood vitamin D levels for the US. Here is the Google statement on that:
“Levels of 50 nmol/L (20 ng/mL) or above are adequate for most people for bone and overall health. Levels below 30 nmol/L (12 ng/mL) are too low and might weaken your bones and affect your health. Levels above 125 nmol/L (50 ng/mL) are too high and might cause health problems.”
Several important points here. First of all these are the levels needed for bone health. Newer science is learning the levels for IMMUNE health are much higher. Second, nmol/L is used in Europe and is 2.5 times the number used with ngm/mL in the US. Thus the correct reading for good levels in the US is 40-60 ng/ml, that is “nanograms per milliliter”, not the incorrect “nanograms per deciliter” which would be ten times as much and not healthy for regular use.
The European reading for US 40-60 ng/mL would be 100-150 nmol/L. My health provider, Kaiser Permanente, listed the OPTIMUM RANGE for blood D levels as 50 to 80 ng/mL December a year ago. This past Dec. when I was retested they were using some odd measure I have never seen in a US research paper on Vitamin D. I wonder if they are trying to hide this important info from the public.
Taking Vitamin D was one of the biggest health improvements I’ve experienced, when trying and testing supplements.
You know you are getting enough Vitamin D when you start having vivid and pleasant dreams.
I’ve heard TOO MUCH Vitamin D causes nightmares, I have not experienced that.
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