Vitamin D May Prevent Cancer

A recent study in the American Journal of Public health suggests that getting enough vitamin D can help prevent breast, ovarian, and colon cancer.

The link between vitamin D status and risk for developing cancer is an important one because vitamin D is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies in industrialized countries, with the elderly, dark-skinned people, the obese, and people living in the northeast of Canada and the States being most at risk.

The study in question looked at 63 studies that were published worldwide from 1966 to 2004.

The data from these studies suggest that adequate vitamin D status can decrease a person's risk for developing colon, breast, and ovarian cancers by as much as 50 percent.

Why is vitamin D important to preventing cancer?

No one knows for sure at this point, but we do know that vitamin D is intimately involved in the process of regulating cell growth and differentiation. Simply put, vitamin D helps our bodies determine what kinds of cells each cell that we produce becomes.

And of course, we have known for decades about the important role that vitamin D plays in promoting a healthy balance of calcium and phosphorus in the blood, which makes it critical to the health of our bones and teeth.

It's important to note that vitamin D is one of four fat-soluble vitamins that we know of. And all fat-soluble vitamins can be stored in our tissues to a point of producing toxic effects. Too much vitamin D can cause serious health challenges.

If you want to learn more about vitamin D and some guidelines on making sure that your blood level of vitamin D is in a healthy range, view my article on vitamin D and Krispin Sullivan's article on this topic.