Copenhagen University research has suggested that certain vitamin supplements do not extend life and could even lead to a premature death.

A review of 67 studies with trials involving 233,000 people found “no convincing evidence” that antioxidant supplements cut the risk of dying,” and suggested that vitamins A and E could interfere with the body’s natural defences, and that beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E seem to increase mortality.… read more

University of Rochester Medical Center researchers and their colleagues have found that vitamin D induces a gene, G6PD, to increase expression of a key enzyme, protecting healthy prostate cells from the damage and injuries that can lead to cancer.

The enzyme clears cells of reactive oxygen species (ROS), molecules that can damage DNA and injure cells.

University of Rochester Medical Center News Release

There is growing evidence that vitamin D helps protect against colorectal cancer, and now a group of researchers who have long studied the vitamin say the same is true for breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

The researchers recommend 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily. Current recommendations call for people between the ages of 1 and 50 to consume 200 IU of vitamin D daily, with 400 IU… read more

Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto) researchers found that women with insufficient vitamin D were nearly twice as likely to have their cancer recur or spread over the next 10 years, and 73 percent more likely to die of the disease.

In another study, University of California San Diego researchers found an association between sun exposure and lowered breast cancer rates. (Ultraviolet B radiation in sunlight triggers production… read more

Cancers in rich countries isn’t caused mainly by pollutants but by a vitamin D deficiency, research suggests.

Researchers are linking low vitamin D status to a host of other serious ailments, including multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes, influenza, osteoporosis and bone fractures among the elderly.

A four-year clinical trial involving 1,200 women found those taking the vitamin had about a 60-per-cent reduction in cancer incidence, compared with those who… read more

Anthony Norman, a UC Riverside expert on vitamin D, has found 36 organ tissues in the body whose cells respond biologically to vitamin D, inciuding bone marrow, breast, colon, intestine, kidney, lung, prostate, retina, skin, stomach and the uterus; deficiency of vitamin D can impact all of them, and also cause muscle strength decrease, high risk for falls, and increased risk for colorectal, prostate and breast and other major cancers.… read more

A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley adds to the evidence that vitamin C supplements can lower concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker for elevated risk of cardiovascular problems and diabetes.

However, they also found that treatment with vitamin C is ineffective in persons whose levels of CRP are less than 1 milligram per liter. The researchers also said that for people with… read more

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases researchers injected immune-deficient mice with cells from three aggressive human cancers — ovarian and pancreatic tumors, plus a form of brain cancer called glioblastoma — and found that vitamin C injections slowed tumour growth by up to 53%.

By injecting into the bloodstream, it is possible to get much larger amounts of the vitamin to a tumor than is possible… read more

Researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain found that visual areas of the cortex could adapt to altered input coming from an inflamed optic nerve.

Areas of the brain normally associated with more specialized higher visual processing reorganized themselves in response to the faulty visual information transmitted by the nerve. The techniques used in this study could also be applied to other conditions such as stroke in… read more