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Boost Your Levels of Vitamin D and Cancer Risk Decreases
The scientific and historical research is pretty convincing. There is a direct link between levels of Vitamin D and cancer risk. More than 200 epidemiological studies validate a link between vitamin D and certain types of cancers, and many others have likewise suggested that vitamin D and calcium appear to reduce cancer risk and boost survival of patients with breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer. The conclusion: If you want to reduce your cancer risk – increase your Vitamin D levels.
A study in the Journal of Cancer Research showed for the first time that Vitamin D can stop human cancer cells from growing. Researchers used Vitamin D to block malignant melanoma tumors from taking up shop in human cells. Their experiment worked. And, since then, scores of clinical studies have confirmed the same thing. Vitamin D can inhibit skin, colon, breast, and other cancers. Despite today’s “avoid-the-sun” mentality, we now face a growing epidemic of cancers. Today, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes are common, while they were very rare just a century ago. Sunlight is the best source of Vitamin D available and research shows that Vitamin D lowers the risk of the deadliest trio of killers – heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. By altering many of the natural ways we lived our lives over hundreds of years, we’ve even created new diseases. Prostate cancer is now becoming ubiquitous in all cultures, but could be prevented if men spent more time in the sun.
In fact, skin cancer was a rare event before 1930 when most people worked outdoors and ignored the “risk” from the sun. Now it’s the most common cancer. And since our grandparent’s generation, the rate of melanoma (the deadly kind) is up 1,800%. First, let me clarify. There are actually three kinds of skin cancer: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma. Cumulative sun exposure is linked to BCC and SCC. With early detection, these are rarely fatal. But melanoma is a different story… this deadly form actually has an inverse relationship to sunshine. So is the sun really responsible? Think about it. The sun is five billion years old. It hasn’t changed in recent times. And, our sun exposure has dramatically decreased over the last seven decades. If sunshine were deadly, people who live in sunny climates would suffer the most deaths from skin cancer. But the opposite is true. Those who live in cold, damp climates with little sunshine – like London or Minnesota – have higher rates than those who live in sun-drenched areas like Arizona, New Mexico and Florida. And today, just 10 percent of people work outdoors – compared with 75 percent a hundred years ago. These facts are routinely ignored by dermatologists and the sunscreen industry. Here’s what the studies really say about the deadliest of all skin cancers: Those working outdoors have the lowest risk of skin cancerIn 1982, the British medical journal The Lancet reported on the relationship between skin cancer and sun exposure. The researchers found that those whose main activity was outdoors had the lowest risk of developing skin cancer. Other studies have yielded the same results. An overview of all of the published research reported in the International Journal of Cancer revealed that multiple studies show that people with “heavy occupational exposure” to the sun have significantly lower risk of melanoma. High lifetime recreational sun exposure lowers your risk Additional studies performed at the British Columbia Cancer Agency confirmed that the higher your lifetime recreational sun exposure, the lower your risk of skin cancer. Lifeguards in Australia have the lowest rates of melanoma In the February 2, 2005 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute a study confirmed that exposure to the sun reduces the risk of skin cancer.4 Additional studies have shown that lifeguards in Australia have the lowest rates of melanoma, the people who bake all day in the hot sun. The incidence of malignant melanoma is twice as high in office workers In another study published in Lancet, researchers at the University of Sydney’s Melanoma Clinic found the incidence of malignant melanoma was twice as high in office workers than those whose occupations or lifestyle kept them in the sun regularly. Those who had the lowest incidence were sunbathers! Authors of this study concluded that in both Australia and Great Britain, professionals and office workers were at greater risk than people who worked outside. Another study showed that those who work under fluorescent light double their risk. A tan can actually help prevent melanoma Several studies conclude that a deep tan, particularly in childhood and the adolescent years, provides protection against melanoma. So kudos to those parents who regularly take their children to go swimming. So what accounts for the sudden rise in skin cancer? My answer: we are exposing ourselves to new carcinogens, eating foods that promote skin cancer, and not getting enough direct sunshine on our skin or the nutrients that prevent it.
The sun triggers your body’s ability to make Vitamin D. Here are five ways it helps your body reduce the risk of getting cancer. 1. Converts tumor cells into normal cells. Cancer cells divide rapidly in your body but don’t differentiate themselves into specific cells. Vitamin D helps this process, restoring the cancer cells to productive cells and inhibiting cancer growth. 2. Prevents cancer cells from multiplying. Cancer cells can’t reproduce and spread to new tissue when introduced to Vitamin D. Laboratory and animal studies show that Vitamin D prevents cancer cells from multiplying and also tells them when to die. 3. Keeps cancer from spreading. Vitamin D promotes normal cell growth. As a result, it helps prevent cancer cells from spreading. 4. Suppresses genes responsible for cell proliferation. Research shows that Vitamin D can suppress genes prone to mutation and likely to form cancerous growths. 5. Inhibits formation of new blood vessels that feed tumors. During the creation of new blood vessels, new vessels begin to branch off existing vessels. This is bad news if they’re cancerous. For any tumor to have a chance to grow, there must be formation of new blood vessels to feed it. Vitamin D inhibits formation of these vessels naturally, starving the tumor of the nutrients it needs to grow. Vitamin D Helps Protect You from Cancer Laboratory, animal, and some preliminary human studies suggests that vitamin D may be protective against some cancers. Several studies suggest that a higher dietary intake of calcium and vitamin D correlates with lower incidence of cancer. In fact, for over 60 years researchers have observed that greater sun exposure reduces cancer deaths. The inverse relationship between higher vitamin D levels in blood and lower cancer risk in humans is best documented for colon and colorectal cancers. Vitamin D emerged as a protective factor in a study of over 3,000 adults who underwent a colonoscopy to look for polyps or lesions in the colon. There was a significantly lower risk of advanced cancerous lesions among those with the highest vitamin D intake.
According to a recent report, as reported in the following video, early testing of Vitamin D deficiency and making sure your vitamin D levels are in the range of 40 to 60 nm/ml can help prevent cancer, and more importantly could reduce mortality rates of breast, colon and other cancers.
Corporations with a vested interest benefit from the belief that sunlight in any amount is dangerous—even deadly. Every year, these groups spend millions of dollars to sell you their products and services. And their financial rewards are clear: $30 billion worth of products every year with $6 billion in annual sales of sunscreens alone.
According to the research – they do. In 2007 the Canadian Cancer Society recommended that adults living in Canada should consider taking Vitamin D supplementation of 1,000 international units (IU) a day during the fall and winter. A randomized intervention study involving 1,200 women, published in June 2007, reports that vitamin D supplementation (1,100 international units (IU)/day) resulted in a 60% reduction in cancer incidence, during a four-year clinical trial, rising to a 77% reduction for cancers diagnosed after the first year (and therefore excluding those cancers more likely to have originated prior to the vitamin D intervention).
Teach the population about vitamin D, in other words, and the cancer industry would suffer devastating losses in profits (vitamin D prevents 4 out of 5 of all cancers). For example, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study showing that vitamin D reduces the risk of ANY KIND OF CANCER in postmenopausal women. And it wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill, epidemiological, mish mash of statistics and food frequency questionnaires, either. It was, according to some, the most reliable study on vitamin D to date. Shortly after the AJCN published the study, the Canadian Cancer Society announced its recommendation that all Canadian adults supplement with vitamin D to reduce their risk of developing cancer. (What a novel idea). So did the American Cancer Society do about it? If nothing’s coming to mind, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Why? Because its against their interest to do so. Many businesses, Universities and non-profits that depend on cancer (and other diseases) for their authority and power are actively fighting against vitamin D awareness. The National Cancer Institute, for example, which is one of the wealthiest non-profits in the world, actively runs full-page ads that attempt to scare people away from sunlight, thereby causing them to remain in a state of vitamin D deficiency. This state of deficiency coincidentally serves the power interests of the NCI by making sure that people remain riddled with cancer even though a free cure (sunshine) is readily available. The FDA, similarly, doesn't want people to learn the truth about vitamin D because informed consumers would inevitably take more vitamin D supplements and thereby prevent all sorts of diseases that the pharmaceutical industry is counting on for its monopoly profits. Every patient that takes vitamin D is one less patient paying money for cancer drugs, diabetes drugs or heart disease drugs. Other cancer industry non-profits, likewise, don't want people to learn the truth about vitamin D. They'd rather just keep selling ridiculous pink-ribbon consumer products that claim to raise money for some highly fictitious "search for the cure" -- a search that was obsolete even before it began because sunshine has been curing and preventing cancer for as long as human beings have walked the planet. Our ancestors walked in the sun and they were cured of cancer by the mere act of being exposed to sunlight. Walking outside and letting the sun shine on you, all by itself, is the "cure" for cancer that the industry claims to need billions more dollars to try to find through additional research.
Vitamin D is important for good health and long-life. Here are some of the articles we've added to our website to give you a full picture of this important subject. Like other parts of this website its full of facts and useful advice. Vitamin D Deficiency: Causes and Risk Factors Vitamin D Deficiency: Symptoms and Risk Factors: Testing Your Vitamin D Levels: (know what to ask your doctor, or order a home testing kit) Getting Vitamin D from Sunshine What you need to know when choosing a Vitamin D supplement Vitamin D Deficiency is linked to 2/3 rds of the medical problems in the US along with poor diet Vitamin D and Calcium: You Need Them Both Vitamin D is Important for Good Heart Health Vitamin D deficiency can cause mobility problems
The information contained in this section of our web site is for educational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. While the publishers of this website believe that people have the right to understand their own bodies and to take care of their bodies as they see fit, we also respect the knowledge and experience of trained nutritionists, scientists, researchers, medical practioners, and others who can help you achieve the optimum health you are entitled to, and suggest you seek out and work with health specialists you can trust.
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