Recently two new reports by cancer prevention specialists at Moores Cancer Center and the University of California, suggest that vitamin D in new prescriptions may stop up to one half of all cases of breast cancer. And that study is published online in the current issue of The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. And it shared data from two earlier studies by the Harvard Nurses Health Study and the St. George’s Hospital Study that supposed that people with the highest levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, 25(OH)D, had the lowest incidences of breast cancer. They take the 1760 sample individuals and divided into five equal groups, from the lowest 25(OH) D at less than 13 nanograms per milliliter, to the highest group with 52 nanograms per milliliter.
“The data were very clear, viewing that individuals in the group with the lowest blood levels had the maximum rates of breast cancer, and the breast cancer rates dropped as the blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D increased,” said study co-author Cedric Garland, Dr.P.H. “The serum level associated with a 50 percent decrease in risk could be maintained by taking 2,000 international units of vitamin D3 daily plus, when the weather permits, spending 10 to 15 minutes a day in the sun.” even though the women are warned not to run out and start supplementing their diet.
The authors advise further research to study individuals for the effect of vitamin D from sunlight, diet and supplements on the risk of cancer. The dose-response data on 1,448 people in the study were put into order by serum 25 (OH) D levels and then divided into five equal groups, from the lowest blood levels to the highest. Vitamin D3 is available through diet, supplements and exposure to sunlight, or ultraviolet B (UVB) as long as the skin does not tan or burn. In a white woman, it will only take 10 minutes at noontime on a clear day, with 50 per cent skin exposure, to absorb adequate vitamin D. Darker skin will require up to 25 minutes. It is significant to eat a balanced diet. Vitamin D is linked to Calcium absorption, so overdosing on one will throw out the balance and may result in a depletion of one vitamin.