The Role of Vitamin D
Finally, as a breaking piece of news on the breast cancer front and indeed as an essential item of news in fighting cancers of all sorts we need to emphasise the vital importance of Vitamin D and some of its derivatives in not only curing existing cancers, but in the vitally important issue of preventing cancer.
A leading epidemiologist on vitamin D, Cedric Garland, professor of family and preventive medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, recently emphasised the importance of Vitamin D in the results of a study published in Annals of Epidemiology (July 2009, Volume 19, Issue 7, Pages 468-483) where he notes:
"The first event in cancer is loss of communication among cells due to, among other things, low vitamin D and calcium levels. In this new model, we propose that this loss may play a key role in cancer by disrupting the communication between cells that is essential to healthy cell turnover, allowing more aggressive cancer cells to take over." He goes on to state that: “It is projected that raising the minimum year-around serum 25(OH)D [vitamin D] level to 40-60 ng/ml would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year, and three quarters of deaths from these diseases, in the US and Canada.”
Dr Mercola, in a recent (13.8.09) posting on his website comments:
“Dr. Garland’s findings only lend further credence to the mountain of growing evidence that optimal levels of vitamin D are essential for your health. Here are just a few highlights into some of the most noteworthy findings:
- Some 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancers could be prevented each year if vitamin D levels among populations worldwide were increased, according to previous research by Dr. Garland and colleagues. (13) And that’s just counting the death toll for two types of cancer.
- Optimizing your vitamin D levels could help you to prevent at least 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers. (14)
- A large-scale, randomized, placebo-controlled study on vitamin D and cancer showed that vitamin D can cut overall cancer risk by as much as 60 percent! (15) This was such groundbreaking news that the Canadian Cancer Society has actually begun endorsing the vitamin as a cancer-prevention therapy.
- Light-skinned women who had high amounts of long-term sun exposure had half the risk of developing advanced breast cancer (cancer that spreads beyond your breast) as women with lower amounts of regular sun exposure, according to a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. (16)
- A study by Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert, found that about 30 percent of cancer deaths -- which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States -- could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D. (17)
- Now we’re starting to see more evidence that the type of cancer in question may not be all that important, because vitamin D appears to play a key role in the development -- and prevention -- of ALL types of cancer!
- Beyond cancer, researchers have pointed out that increasing levels of vitamin D could prevent diseases that claim nearly 1 million lives throughout the world each year!" (18)
What is becoming increasingly clear is that we need to ditch most of the mythology surrounding the dangers of sun exposure and get out into sunlight with our naked bodies much more than we do. Sunlight is what the body uses to generate its own natural Vitamin D and for most of us – bearing in mind variations in exposure according to skin type – we would all derive considerable benefit from regular sun exposure. Dr. Michael Holick of Boston University’s Dermatology Department created a storm in the dermatology world in 2004 when he stated the very same thing in his landmark text The UV Advantage, and an increasing body of research is demonstrating that skin exposure to the sun is actually essential and skin cancers themselves are linked to dietary factors and, in particular, our wrong-headedness over saturated fats and oils broached earlier.
Furthermore it is probable that the Vitamin D research has opened a window into a final solution to cancer offering an end to this terrible disease. The International Journal of Cancer (122, 461-467, 2008) last year produced groundbreaking research data from Nobuto Yamamoto et al indicating that a Vitamin D serum found in all blood can be isolated and used to stimulate the body’s immune system so that any cancerous cells are eliminated. The serum involved, termed serum vitamin D3-binding protein (Gc protein) is the precursor for the principal macrophage activating factor (MAF), which the cancer cells themselves de-activate by producing a counter-serum a-N-acetylgalactosaminidase (Nagalase).
In this sense cancer cells can be seen as an alien life form solely bent on its own survival by sabotaging the human body’s only line of defence against the invasion. The researchers found that GcMAF-treated macrophages killed cancer cells preferentially indicating an opening for a completely new way of attacking cancer. The suggested therapy is still at its experimental stage but seems to be particularly successful when applied to breast cancer. What is particularly interesting in this case is the role of a Vitamin D derivative, suggesting that what with the research mentioned earlier we are finally homing in on a cancer therapy which may prove to be the ultimate cure of all types of cancer.
13. Nutrition Reviews August 2007 Volume 65, Supplement 1, pp. 91-95(5) (Registration Required); The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology March 2007; 103(3-5):708-11.
14. Grant, William “Reduce Your Risk of Cancer With Sunlight Exposure,” Mercola.com March 31, 2004
15. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition June 2007; 85(6):1586-91.
16. American Journal of Epidemiology October 12, 2007
17. Mercola.com “Daily Sunlight Can Keep Cancer Away” August 7, 2008
18. Mercola.com “Lack of Sunshine Causes One Million Deaths a Year” August 24, 2007