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Could Vitamin D Reduce Cancer Risk?

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New research conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has established a link between vitamin D and cancer.

According to the study, which was published on April 6 in the journal PLOS ONE, vitamin D may have the ability to reduce the risk of cancer as their research showed serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D to be capable of preventing invasive cancers.

Adjust professor Cedric Garland with the UC San Diego School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and Public Health was quoted by Science Daily as having said that “adequate amounts” of the vitamin can “prevent all types of invasive cancer”. Which, up until now, has been unknown to the world of medicine.

We have quantitated the ability of adequate amounts of vitamin D to prevent all types of invasive cancer combined, which had been terra incognita until publication of this paper

Garland and his colleagues reached their conclusion by combining the results of two studies, a randomized clinical trial with 1,169 female participants and a prospective cohort study in which another 1,135 women were involved.

Analyzing the blood serum levels of 25-hydroyvitamin D, also known as 25(OH)D, the researchers noticed a decline in cancer incident which correlated with a rise in 25(OH)D.

While Garland and his colleagues did not specify an ideal daily intake or means of administration — such as supplementation, diet or exposure to sunlight — they did indicate based on their findings that a reduction in cancer risk can be measured at 40 ng/ml and that at higher levels, additional benefits are made apparent.

Partially contrary to their findings, National Cancer Institute researchers previously announced that vitamin D supplements do not reduce the risk of colon cancer.

An unrelated study conducted by researchers at the University of Pernambuco Medical School in Brazil recently found that while tan skin might provide a certain level of protection against the harmful ultraviolet rays emit by the Sun, such skin pigmentation also blocks vitamin D synthesis while limiting the skin’s natural ability to produce vitamin D, WebMD reported.

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