Your Cancer Risk Guide

Evidence That Vitamin D Fights Cancer

;We all love the feeling of warm sunshine on our skin. Well now, as long as you don’t overdo that exposure, you get a nice benefit. Sunlight helps your body naturally produce its own Vitamin D.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that the proper amount of vitamin D can actually help your body ward off cancer. In recent research, scientists found that 250,000 cases of colorectal cancer and 350,000 cases of breast cancer could be prevented every year around the world by having those affected with these cancers increase their vitamin D intake. Specifically, vitamin D3.

I will say that it’s quite a statement to say that 600,000 cancer cases per year could be eliminated by increasing vitamin D intake, but that’s the conclusion these scientists have drawn. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to go bask in the sun for a while.

Cedric F. Garland, Dr.P.H., cancer prevention specialist at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and colleagues estimate that 250,000 cases of colorectal cancer and 350,000 cases of breast cancer could be prevented worldwide by increasing intake of vitamin D3, particularly in countries north of the equator. Vitamin D3 is available through diet, supplements and exposure of the skin to sunlight.

“For the first time, we are saying that 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancer could be prevented each year worldwide, including nearly 150,000 in the United States alone,” said study co-author Garland. The paper, which looks at the dose-response relationship between vitamin D and cancer, will be published in the August edition of the journal Nutrition Reviews.

The study combined data from surveys of serum vitamin D levels during winter from 15 countries. It is the first such study to look at satellite measurements of sunshine and cloud cover in countries where actual blood serum levels of vitamin D3 had also been determined. The data were then applied to 177 countries to estimate the average serum level of a vitamin D metabolite of people living there.

The data revealed an inverse association of serum vitamin D with risk of colorectal and breast cancer. The protective effect began at levels ranging from 24 to 32 nanograms per milliliter of 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration in the serum. The 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is the main indicator of vitamin D status. The late winter average 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the US is about 15-18 ng/ml. The researchers maintain that increasing vitamin D levels in populations, particularly those in northern climates, has the potential to both prevent and possibly serve as an adjunct to existing treatments for cancer.

The work builds on previous studies by Garland and colleagues (Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular, February 2007) which found that raising the serum 25(OH)D levels to 55 ng/mL was optimal for cancer prevention. This is the first study to recommend optimal vitamin D serum levels which, Garland said, are high enough to provide the needed benefit but which have been found by other scientists to be low enough to avoid health risks.

“This could be best achieved with a combination of diet, supplements and short intervals — 10 or 15 minutes a day — in the sun,” said Garland. It could be less for very fair-skinned individuals. He went on to say that “the appropriate dose of vitamin D in order to reach this level, could be very little in a lifeguard in Southern California… or quite a lot for someone in Northern Europe who tends to remain indoors most of the year.”

Read more at ScienceDaily.

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Reduce Your Cancer Risk

Thinking about cancer is something most of us would like to never do, but today we know that paying attention to our cancer risk can yield real dividends. Scientists estimate that if everyone ate a healthy diet, was physically active every day and maintained a more healthy weight, the number of cancer cases would be reduced by about one-third.

Learning Simple Changes
Making healthy lifestyle choices, ones that can help protect against cancer along with heart disease, stroke and a variety of other health problems, is quite a bit easier to do than you may think. The best starting point is the AICR Recommendations for Cancer Prevention.

Condensed to their simplest form, the recommendations fall into three guidelines:

• Choose mostly plant foods, limit red meat and avoid processed meat
• Be physically active every day in any way for 30 minutes or more
• Aim to be a healthy weight throughout life.

And always remember…
Do not smoke or chew tobacco.

Eat right, stay active and watch your weight
The foods you choose to eat every day are one of the most important factors in protecting you against cancer. Most Americans eat a diet that is far too high in meat and calories. Even more important is what the average diet lacks: a variety of vegetables, fruits, beans and other plant based foods. These plant based foods give your body not only the nutrients it needs for good health, but an arsenal of compounds (phytochemicals) that help protect against naturally occurring cancer risks you face every day.

Regular physically activity in any form, from dancing to walking, is also shown to help significantly lower cancer risk. If you both eat a predominantly plant based diet and are physically active, that will help with weight maintenance, which is increasingly found to play a role in cancer risk. As well as helping avoid weight gain, research shows that activity itself can keep our hormone levels healthy, which is important because having high levels of some hormones can increase our cancer risk.

Changing your pattern of diet and activity is not as hard as you may think. AICR offers free educational publications that can help.

Smoking and Cancer
There is absolutely no question that smoking, or using tobacco in any form, is one of the worst choices you can make when it comes to your health. Not only does the use of tobacco greatly increase risk for lung cancer, but it also appears to influence some other forms of cancer, and significantly increases your risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Today there is more help than ever for those who wish to stop smoking. Your doctor or local hospital can help you find assistance.  There are even community programs now in place that aim to help you kick the habit.  These programs are free, and can even cover chemical help such as the patch, nicotene gum, or other quit smoking prescriptions.

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