Vitamin D linked to lower risk of cancer: study

PARIS, France - Higher levels of Vitamin D in the blood may be linked to a lower risk of developing certain cancers, a study in Japanese adults reported Thursday.

"These findings support the hypothesis that Vitamin D has protective effects against cancers at many sites," researchers reported in a study published in The BMJ medical journal.

Vitamin D is made by the skin in response to sunlight. By maintaining calcium levels in the body, it helps keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy.

While the benefits of Vitamin D on bone health are well known, there is some evidence that it may protect against chronic diseases as well, including some cancers.

Studies to date, however, have been carried out mainly in European and North American people.

As natural Vitamin D concentrations can vary by ethnicity, researchers from half-a-dozen Japanese medical schools and institutes set out to determine the potential for lowering cancer risk in Asians.

They analyzed the public health records of 33,736 men and women aged 40 to 69.

At the start of the study, participants provided detailed information on their medical history, diet and lifestyle. Blood samples were taken to measure Vitamin D levels.

The researchers did not specify whether the trial participants used vitamin supplements or not.

Taking into account seasonal variations, the group was divided into four groups, ranging from the lowest to highest concentration of Vitamin D.

Participants were then monitored for 16 years on average, during which time 3,301 new cases of cancer were recorded.

After adjusting for well-known cancer risk factors -- age, weight, smoking, and alcohol intake, for example -- the researchers found that, overall, higher Vitamin D levels was associated with a 20 percent lower cancer risk for both genders.

The risk of liver cancer dropped even more, by up to 50 percent, especially for men.

Vitamin D did not appear have any impact in warding off lung or prostate cancer, however.

None of the cancers examined showed an increased risk associated with higher Vitamin D levels.

Previous studies have shown that low levels of Vitamin D increase the risk of bone fractures, heart disease, colorectal cancer, diabetes, depression, Alzheimer's disease and death.

But others have found no evidence of a link to disease risk.

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source: news.abs-cbn.com

Vitamin D - plus calcium - tied to extra years

Older people who take vitamin D and calcium supplements may live a bit longer than their peers, according to an international review of several studies covering more than 70,000 people.

Researchers writing in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology found that older people who were given the supplements were 9 percent less likely to die over three years than those given placebo pills. Vitamin D alone had no impact on death rates.

A 9 percent dip in death risk over a three year period might sound small, but lead researcher Lars Rejnmark said that effect is "at least as pronounced" as the benefits linked to cholesterol-lowering statins and blood pressure drugs.

"In my view, a 9 percent reduced mortality in the general population of elderly is of major importance," Rejnmark, an associate professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, told Reuters Health by email.

"Except for stopping smoking, there are not many other known interventions that are capable (of) such a reduction in the risk of death."

Rejnmark and his colleagues combined the results from eight clinical trials that involved more than 70,000 older adults, mostly women.

In each trial, people were randomly assigned to take vitamin D or a placebo. Some studies used a combination of vitamin D and calcium.

The doses varied, but most trials used a daily vitamin D dose of 10 to 20 micrograms. In the United States, health officials suggest that most adults get 15 micrograms (or 600 IU) of vitamin D per day, while people older than 70 should aim to get 20 micrograms (or 800 IU).

In trials that used calcium, the dose was 1,000 milligrams per day. In general, women older than 50, and everyone over 70, are told to get 1,200 milligrams of calcium each day.

Vitamin D and calcium are probably best know as bone-builders. Older women often take the supplements to ward off the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis - and some trials have found that the supplement combination can prevent falls and bone fractures in the elderly.

But that probably does not explain the lower death risk in this study. When the researchers factored in hip and spine fractures, they did not account for the dip in death risk.

Another possibility is that supplements curbed people's risk of dying from cancer. Rejnmark said there's some evidence that calcium and vitamin D may lower the odds of colon cancer, but the evidence is not yet "firm".

For now, he said, the findings supported getting the recommended amounts of vitamin D and calcium.

Some members of Rejnmark's team had connections to supplement makers that market vitamin D and calcium products.

source: interaksyon.com