Landmark Study on Vitamin D and Cancer Risk | Arthritis Information

 

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Creighton University million to continue its landmark study linking Vitamin D to a reduction in cancer risk.

The study’s findings, reported in June 2007, showed for the first time in a clinical trial that postmenopausal women consuming optimal amounts of calcium supplements as well as vitamin D3 supplements at nearly three times U.S. government recommended levels could reduce their risk of cancer by 60-77 percent.

“The vitamin D3 finding was a secondary goal in the original study,” said Creighton researcher Joan Lappe, Ph.D. “We must now confirm these findings with a clinical trial specifically designed to look at calcium, vitamin D and cancer. Confirmation is necessary in order to have evidence solid enough to change public policy regarding intake levels for vitamin D.”

Lappe, holder of the Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss and Drs. Gilbert and Clinton Beirne Endowed Chair in Nursing at Creighton and a professor of medicine, was the principal investigator for the landmark study. She will also head the new study.

As with the first study, healthy, postmenopausal women from nine Nebraska counties – Douglas, Sarpy, Washington, Burt, Colfax, Cuming, Dodge, Saunders, and Butler – will be selected randomly through phone calls, beginning in February. A total of 2,300 women will be recruited and followed for four years with half of the participants randomly assigned to take daily supplements containing 2000 IU of Vitamin D-3 and 1200 mg of calcium; the second group will get placebos.

no brainer!!! This study is 4 1/2 years long. I read about the study they did on Vitamin D and breast cancer. After 5 years of supplementation the women taking vitamin D had fewer instances of breast cancer. After 10 years they had the same rate of incidence. After 15 years women supplementing with Vitamin D had more instances of breast cancer than women not supplementing.

In light of those studies it would be more impressive if they kept this study going for 15 years instead of 4 1/2 (that's an odd amount of time, isn;t it?)

burp

babs102009-01-29 11:56:40Does anyone subscribe to Dr. Mirkin's e-zine?  In the latest issue I received, he talks about getting D from the sun and the role UVA/UVB plays and the relation to cancer.  He talks about a new study.

It isn't on his site yet, or I would post a link.  Somebody remind me next week!  The way I understand it, it says you need to get your D from the sun with those rays or you will not get the benefit of cancer prevention.   I copied my e-mail; I hope he won't mind!  Go to drmirkin.com to sign up to receive it yourself!

http://www.drmirkin.com/

From Dr. Mirkin's Weekly E-zine:

Dear Dr. Mirkin: You recommend sunlight for vitamin D, but isn't 
skin cancer a greater concern?

    A single sunburn can cause malignant melanoma, but 
since 1940, the greatest increase in melanomas has occurred in 
office workers, not in people who work outdoors.  FDA researchers 
believe that low vitamin D levels may be responsible (Medical 
Hypothesis,  January 2009).  Ultraviolet light is classified by 
wavelength into UVA and UVB. UVB rays cause skin to make 
vitamin D which helps the body to prevent cancers by inhibiting 
uncontrolled cell growth and restoring programable cells death 
called apoptosis.  Since window glass block UVB almost 
completely, indoor office workers get up to nine times less UVB 
than people who spend more time outside and therefore, have far 
lower levels of vitamin D.
    Since window glass allow UVA to pass through it, indoor 
workers have exposure to UVA which causes DNA damage and  
also breaks down what little vitamin D indoor workers get.  The 
authors found indoor solar UVA irradiation to be 25 percent of 
what a person gets outdoors.  So being indoors and exposing skin 
to the sun mostly through window glass reduces exposure to UVB 
that causes skin to make the vitamin D that prevents cancer, and 
increases relative exposure to UVA that destroys vitamin D in the 
skin and therefore increases cancer risk. 

  Suzanne2009-01-29 12:45:32 [QUOTE=Suzanne]

  So being indoors and exposing skin 
to the sun mostly through window glass reduces exposure to UVB 
that causes skin to make the vitamin D that prevents cancer, and 
increases relative exposure to UVA that destroys vitamin D in the 
skin and therefore increases cancer risk. 

  [/QUOTE]

Does this mean no sitting by sunny windows?  UVA is streaming in and undoing all your D???
[QUOTE=babs10]no brainer!!! [/QUOTE]