Vitamin D may double chances of surviving breast cancer

Wednesday, March 19, 2014 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: vitamin D, breast cancer, survival rate

(NaturalNews) The benefits of vitamin D have long been known, and there is no better way to get it than to let the sunshine provide it to you. Vitamin D has been linked to lowering blood pressure and treating or preventing Crohn's disease, and it can alleviate symptoms of fatigue and multiple sclerosis, among other health problems.

That said, vitamin D has been particularly successful in helping women combat breast cancer, say scientists [http://www.naturalnews.com]. And now, new research says that higher levels of vitamin D can actually double a breast cancer patient's chances of survival.

The study was recently published in the journal Anticancer Research.

Prof. Cedric F. Garland, with the University of California-San Diego's School of Medicine, told Medical News Today that past studies had shown an association between low levels of vitamin D and an increased risk of premenopausal breast cancer. Those findings led his team to see if increasing vitamin D levels would have any positive effect on breast cancer rates.

'Vitamin D receptors are not lost until a tumor is very advanced'

To do so, Garland and his team analyzed the link between 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a metabolite that the body produces from consuming vitamin D, and survival rates.

The team found that participants with high levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in their blood had about a 50 percent less chance of dying from breast cancer, when compared with women who had lower levels.

"As long as vitamin D receptors are present, tumor growth is prevented and kept from expanding its blood supply," Garland said, hinting that vitamin D worked to inhibit tumor growth by halting aggressive cell division.

"Vitamin D receptors are not lost until a tumor is very advanced. This is the reason for better survival in patients whose vitamin D blood levels are high," he added.

[Read: Obesity can cause vitamin D deficiency: http://www.naturalnews.com]

Vitamin D can be obtained via natural sources like sunlight, of course, but also from mushrooms, GMO-free eggs and omega-3s, as Natural News has reported.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that the body makes vitamin D when it is exposed to direct sunlight. Even on cloudy days, the government health agency says, being outside will still help the body produce vitamin D.

Per the NIH:

Because vitamin D can come from sun, food, and supplements, the best
measure of one's vitamin D status is blood levels of a form known as
25-hydroxyvitamin D. Levels are described in either nanomoles per liter
(nmol/L) or nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), where 1 nmol/L = 0.4
ng/mL.

In general, levels below 30 nmol/L (12 ng/mL) are too low for bone or
overall health, and levels above 125 nmol/L (50 ng/mL) are probably too
high. Levels of 50 nmol/L or above (20 ng/mL or above) are sufficient
for most people.

But worries over skin cancer from too much sunlight -- which Natural News founder and editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has reported is bunk, often lead to a person having too little of the valuable vitamin in their systems and not even knowing it [Mike recommends sunlight when you can get it, and even says tanning booths can work to prevent cancer -- see his video explaining all of this here].

Here are some other conditions related to vitamin D deficiency:

Worsens your depression. A study published last year found that chronically depressed people are vitamin D deficient [http://www.naturalnews.com].

Can't lose thatut g? Part of the problem may be due to an insufficiency of vitamin D in your system. Boost your intake (naturally) and see what happens. [http://www.naturalnews.com]

Protect your joints. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to the development of rheumatoid arthritis [http://www.naturalnews.com].

Read more here about the benefits of vitamin D: http://www.naturalnews.com.

More studies on vitamin D and its role in health can be found here: http://science.naturalnews.com.

Sources:

http://voxxi.com

http://time.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://ods.od.nih.gov

http://science.naturalnews.com