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Vitamin D & Pancreatic Cancer Prevention

Preventing Pancreatic Cancer -- Vitamin D May be the Key

As the summer sun fades, a study conducted by Northwestern University in Chicago provides very strong evidence that maintaining adequate levels of the “Sunshine Vitamin” may make us half as likely to develop one of the most feared of all cancers -- cancer of the pancreas. 

The study, which was widely reported in mid-September, found that people who took the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of Vitamin D, 400 IU a day, had a 43% lower risk of developing pancreatic cancer – 43 percent! Better still, that dose is far less than the recommended amount of 1,000 IU a day that vitamin D experts like Dr. Holick from Boston University recommend. 

Researchers only studied individuals who took supplements, not individuals who have made dietary changes or those who have been exposed to ultraviolet light. They point out that further research is necessary before they can determine whether or not vitamin D produced by UV exposure to the skin would also cut the risk. Realistically, does anyone really doubt that vitamin D produced naturally by your body would not have the same dramatic effect?

This is a truly remarkable finding and has major implications in our fight to combat one of the most feared of all cancers.  According to the American Cancer Society, pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of death from all forms of cancers in the United States.  This year alone, 32,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed.  Only 5% of patients who develop this deadly cancer will survive more than five years.

One researcher for this study, Halcyon Skinner, said in a statement, “Vitamin D has shown strong potential for preventing and treating prostate cancer, and areas [geographical locations] with greater sunlight exposure have lower incidence and mortality for prostate, breast, and colon cancers, leading us to investigate a role for Vitamin D in pancreatic cancer risk.”

Findings of this type only reinforce what most people have understood intuitively for years - you not only look better but you feel better with a little sun in your life!

A 2006 study released from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center states that 1,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D daily lowers an individual’s risk of developing colon cancer by 50%. Cancer prevention specialists are urging the public to increase their vitamin D to this level. The current recommendation for vitamin D is only 400-600 IU.

In the past 50 years there have been over 44 studies on the relationship between vitamin D and various cancers, 18 of the studies pertaining specifically to colon cancer. The majority of those 18 studies proved a positive relationship between increased vitamin D levels and reduced risk of colon cancer. The study released by the Moores Cancer Center is the first to give an exact value to the amount of Vitamin D necessary.

Edward D. Gorham, assistant adjunct professor of Family and Preventive Medicine at UCSD School of Medicine and a cancer epidemiologist affiliated with the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, noted that in those studies where there was no correlation between vitamin D and colon cancer there were extenuating circumstances. Gorham cited the studies conducted in Scandinavia as an example for the lack of results. "In Scandinavian countries, vitamin D comes largely from fish. Most of their fish is smoked, salted or preserved. These are carcinogenic, so the carcinogens could offset the benefit."

As a result of the research, the study calls for several actions to be taken by the U.S. Federal Government including: increasing the recommendation of Vitamin D to 1,000 IU; establishing a national research program to fund similar studies; standardizing the recommended vitamin D measurement internationally for use in future research projects.

Colon cancer claims 56,000 lives annually with 145,000 new cases diagnosed each year. This study suggests that 28,000 deaths and 72,500 new cases could be prevented through increased vitamin D intake. Participants in this study obtained Vitamin D through sun exposure, diet and supplements.

http://psa-rising.com/med/prevention/vitD_colonca.html

06/21/2009