Cancer, Vitamin D, and Sunshine

[tiptoe]

Source: Cancer Monthly

Vitamin D From Sun Exposure Reduces Cancer Risk, Ecological Studies Find

Getting enough vitamin D can significantly reduce the risk of several different types of cancer, and ecological studies done over the past decade have confirmed that sun exposure is a critical source of this vitamin, according to a recent report in Annals of Epidemiology.

Researchers have been looking at the connection between vitamin D from sunlight and cancer risk since 1980, when researchers Cedric and Frank Garland looked at geographic maps of cancer deaths and found that mortality from colon cancer was highest in places where residents got the least amount of sun exposure (such as in high latitudes).

William B. Grant, PhD., Director of the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC) in San Francisco, California, has been one of the foremost researchers on vitamin D and cancer incidence since 2000. In a 2002 study, he identified 14 different types of cancers that were linked to insufficient UVB exposure, and estimated that between 17,000 and 23,000 people die prematurely each year in the U.S. due to a lack of vitamin D from the sun.

The strongest associations between vitamin D from the sun and cancer have been with colon and breast cancers, but links have also been found with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, ovarian cancer, and kidney cancer. Studies have also connected vitamin D to a reduced incidence of other diseases, such as colds and flu, coronary heart disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure.
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Read more: http://www.cancermonthly.com/iNP/view.asp?ID=244

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