foodconsumer.org: Vitamin D prevents breast cancer - study

Vitamin D prevents breast cancer - study
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admin on 10/25/2009 09:30:00
 
Editor's note: October is the Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In this month, we'd
encourage women to learn something that they can use to prevent the disease. 
Don't donate money to cancer organizations hoping they will get you a cure.  The
federal government has already invested billions of taxpayers' dollars in cancer
research.  The following article is to give you some evidence that there is
something you can do to prevent breast cancer.
Taking vitamin D supplements may reduce risk of breast cancer, a new
meta-analysis reported in the Oct 23, 2009 issue of Breast Cancer Research and
Treatment suggests.
Chen P and colleagues at Shanghai Institutes fir Biological Sciences, Chinese
Academy of Sciences examined data from 33 studies on vitamin D, calcium and
breast cancer to see if there is an association.
Chen et al. found women with high intake of vitamin D were 9 percent less likely
to develop breast cancer than those with low intake.
Women who had highest quantile of circulating 25(OH)D were 45 percent less
likely to have breast cancer than those with the lowest quantile.
Calcium was also found to be protective.  The researchers found breast cancer
risk was reduced by 19 percent in those who had highest calcium intakes compared
to those who had the lowest intakes.
Some previous studies suggest that taking high doses of vitamin D could prevent
70 percent of breast cancer cancer.
Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 170,000 women each year in the United
States and the disease and its complications kill about 50,000 each year.
Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with 17 types of cancer.  Dr. John
Cannell, a vitamin D expert and director of Vitamin D Council says on his
website that in order to have some protective effect against cancer, one needs
to maintain high levels of serum vitamin D.
By David Liu