Vitamin D May Help Curb Breast Cancer

May 20, 2008 | Source: KurzweilAI

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 of vitamin D in the body.)

Using worldwide data available through GLOBOCAN, a database of cancer incidence, mortality and prevalence for 175 countries, the UCSD researchers plotted incidence rates by latitude. They found breast cancer rates were highest at the highest north and south latitudes. They found similar vitamin D associations for kidney, ovarian and endometrial cancers.

Vitamin D is in salmon and other oily fish, and milk is routinely fortified with it, but dietary sources account for little of the amount of D circulating in the blood.