Vitamin D Deficiency as a Cause of Cancer
Cancer is, impart, a light deficiency disease. A study published in the Journal Clinical Oncology suggests that low levels of vitamin D is connected to more aggressive forms of prostate cancer. Epidemiologic data also indicate that vitamin D signaling may be important in the cause and prognosis of prostate and other cancers. When we look at the fact that more than 2000 genes are modulated by 1,25D3[1] we can begin to understand why vitamin D is important in cancer treatment.
Twenty-five years ago Dr John Ott investigated the background to a report that children at a school in Illinois had five times the national rate of leukemia. He found that all the pupils who developed leukemia had been in two particular classrooms. In these two rooms the teachers always kept the large curtains completely drawn across the windows to reduce glare and distraction, and to keep the children’s attention on schoolwork.
Researchers from UC San Diegodiscovered that vitamin D levels of 48 ng/mL or higher were linked to a 67 percent reduction in cancer risk when compared to those whose levels were 20 ng/mL or less. Studies have shown that higher sun exposure throughout a women’s lifetime is linked to a 70 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer. In 2018 The British Medical Journal revealed that high vitamin D levels were associated with a reduction in cancer risk of 20 percent when it came to liver cancer. It is also known that ovarian cancer cases were more than three times more likely to have low 25[OH]D levels.[2]
Dr. Pamela Goodwin and colleagues retrospectively analyzed more than 500 women over a period of 11 years. Results: Women who had been deficient in vitamin D at the time of their breast cancer diagnosis were 73% more likely to die from breast cancer than those with sufficient vitamin D at the time of diagnosis, as well as being almost twice as likely to have recurrence over the 11-year period. What more evidence do doctors need for them to start recommending sunlight and or vitamin D to their patients? (See much more about this in a later chapter.)
Theories linking vitamin D to certain cancers have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies, according to epidemiologist Dr. Cedric Garland, professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Dr. Garland focused on the relationship between breast cancer and vitamin D levels and his conclusion, “If women kept their vitamin D blood levels at approximately 52 ng/ml, they could expect a 50% reduction in the risk of breast cancer.”
Researchers from Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola New York, found that giving supplements of vitamin D to a group of volunteers reduced episodes of infection with colds and flu by 70 per cent over three years.
[1] Asian J Androl. 2018 May-Jun; 20(3): 244–252. Vitamin D in prostate cancer
[2] November 2010Volume 119, Issue 2, Pages 314–318. Casting light on 25-hydroxyvitamin D deficiency in ovarian cancer: A study from the NHANES