Re: Thanks Andi: Vitamin D shown to cut women's cancer risk /OT

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Andi. It is a good one.

I have been taking Calcium + vit " D " supplement.

Recently i was prescribed Fosamax + " D " , instead of

taking Fosamax alone for Osteoporosis. It is exciting

to know that vit " D " might have other potential

benefits.

--- kxcp236v wrote:

> Vitamin D shown to cut women's cancer risk Major

> study suggests

> supplement wards off several types of cancer The

> Associated Press

> Updated: 3:04 p.m. PT June 7, 2007

>

>

> OMAHA, Neb. - Building hope for one pill to prevent

> many cancers,

> vitamin D cut the risk of several types of cancer by

> 60 percent overall

> for older women in the most rigorous study yet.

>

> The new research strengthens the case made by some

> specialists that

> vitamin D may be a powerful cancer preventive and

> most people should get

> more of it. Experts remain split, though, on how

> much to take.

>

> " The findings ... are a breakthrough of great

> medical and public

> health importance, " declared Cedric Garland, a

> prominent vitamin D

> researcher at the University of California-San

> Diego. " No other

> method to prevent cancer has been identified that

> has such a powerful

> impact. "

>

> While the most reliable yet, the study does have

> drawbacks. It was

> designed mainly to monitor how calcium and vitamin D

> improve bone

> health, and the number of cancer cases overall was

> small, showing up in

> just 50 patients.

>

> " It's a very small study, " said Dr.

> Giovannucci, who

> researches nutrition and cancer at the Harvard

> School of Public Health.

> " I don't think it's the last word. "

>

> In either case, the study takes an important step in

> extending several

> decades of research that began with observations

> that cancer rates among

> similar groups of people were lower in southern

> latitudes than in

> northern ones. Scientists reasoned that had to do

> with more direct

> sunlight in southern regions.

>

> Supplements put to the test

> The skin makes vitamin D when exposed to sunlight's

> ultraviolet

> rays. This study used that same form of the vitamin,

> known as D3 or

> cholecalciferol. Multivitamins usually carry a much

> weaker variant known

> as D2, but D3 is available in stand-alone dietary

> supplements.

>

> Earlier research has shown that vitamin D helps

> regulate cell growth, a

> fundamental biological process that goes haywire in

> cancer. Most other

> supplements have tended to target specific types of

> disease in early

> testing, like selenium or vitamin E for prostate

> cancer.

>

> This study, published Friday in the American Journal

> of Clinical

> Nutrition, is the first time that researchers

> significantly boosted

> — and measured — blood levels of vitamin D and then

> followed

> identical groups of patients from start to finish.

>

> That's why, despite its modest size, the research

> was generating

> excitement. Nearly all other work has compared

> disparate groups of

> patients.

>

> The researchers at Creighton University in Omaha

> focused on 1,179

> seemingly healthy women with an average age of 67.

> The women were

> divided into three groups: 446 got calcium and

> vitamin D3 supplements, a

> similar number got calcium alone, and 288 took dummy

> pills.

>

> The research team gave 1,000 daily international

> units of vitamin D,

> more than current guidelines calling for 200 to 600

> units depending on a

> person's age.

>

> The researchers intended to check mainly for the

> effects of calcium on

> bone health. Their interest in cancer risk was

> secondary.

>

> Stumbled across major finding

> But the lower cancer risk stood out. Only 13 women,

> or 3 percent,

> developed cancer over four years of calcium and

> vitamin D supplements.

> With calcium alone, 17 women, or 4 percent, got

> cancer. With dummy

> pills, cancer appeared in 20 women, or 7 percent.

>

> That shows a 60 percent lower cancer risk over four

> years in the group

> taking both supplements, compared to patients taking

> placebos. And when

> the first-year cancers were excluded — the ones

> mostly likely

> present before the study began — the findings were

> stronger still: a

> 77 percent lower risk for the combo group.

>

> While the calcium-only group lowered its four-year

> cancer risk by 47

> percent compared to the untreated group, it did no

> better when early

> cancers were excluded. That suggests calcium alone

> may have done little

> in this experiment, the researchers said.

>

>

> Experts reviewing the study focused on vitamin D as

> the powerful agent

> in the combo group, but it can't be ruled out that

> calcium might

> somehow amplify the effect of vitamin D.

>

> While numbers were limited, these women developed a

> broad range of

> cancers, including disease of the breast, colon,

> lungs and blood. Dr.

> Holick, of Boston University Medical Center,

> who sat on the

> professional panel that issued the 1997 guidelines

> for vitamin D, said

> this study shows that enough vitamin D " markedly

> reduces the risk of

> developing the most serious deadly cancers. "

>

> How much?

> He supports raising the recommended amount of the

> vitamin and said 1,000

> daily units of vitamin D3 would now be reasonable

> for most people.

>

> On the other hand, Dr. Thun of the American

> Cancer Society

> favors keeping the current recommendation of 200 to

> 600 IUs for now. And

> he cautioned that more than 2,000 units is viewed in

> the guidelines as

> potentially dangerous.

>

> Joan Lappe, the study's lead researcher, said it

> " just adds to

> the great bunch of evidence that we need to have

> better vitamin D

> nutrition. " Some foods carry the vitamin, like

> salmon, tuna and

> fortified milk, but diet accounts for little of the

> vitamin circulating

> in the body. Overexposure to the sun can cause skin

> cancer.

>

> Still, people should consult their doctors before

> boosting their vitamin

> dosage, several experts also warned.

>

> More study is needed to determine if the effects in

> this study hold true

> for large groups of people and men as well as women.

>

> URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19098606/

> <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19098606/>

>

>

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