Optimizing Vitamin D Levels May Double Chances of Surviving Breast Cancer.
A recent meta-analysis found that breast cancer patients who had high vitamin D levels (average 30 ng/ml) were twice as likely to survive compared to women with low levels (average 17 ng/ml)Vitamin D has a number of anti-cancer effects, including the promotion of cancer cell death, and the inhibition of angiogenesis (the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor).
Previous research has shown that a vitamin D level of 50 ng/ml is associated with a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer. Recent research found that vitamin D in combination with calcium appears to reduce LDL cholesterol levels in postmenopausal womenVitamin D deficiency may cause autistic behavior through its effects on the brain hormones serotonin, oxytocin, and vasopressin, all of which are associated with social behavior.
There are many reasons to be conscious of vitamin D, but today's featured study will focus on breast health. A robust and rapidly growing body of research clearly shows that vitamin D is absolutely critical for good health and disease prevention, in part due to the fact that it influences about 10 percent of all your genes.
Recent studies demonstrate how optimizing your vitamin D levels may lower your LDL cholesterol levels and double your chances of surviving breast cancer. Researchers also claim to have discovered a causal link between vitamin D deficiency and autism spectrum disorder.
Since the early 2000s, scientific investigations into the effects of vitamin D have ballooned. By the end of 2012, there were nearly 34,000 published studies on the effects of vitamin D, and there are well over 800 references in the medical literature showing vitamin D's effectiveness against cancer
alone.
Recently, a meta-analysis of five studies published in the March 2014 issue of Anti Cancer Research found that patients diagnosed with breast cancer who had high vitamin D levels were twice as likely to survive compared to women with low levels.
The analysis included more than 4,500 breast cancer patients over a nine-year period. The high serum group had an average vitamin D level of 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). Women in the low serum group averaged 17 ng/ml, which is the average vitamin D level found in American breast cancer patients
The study was co-authored by Professor Cedric F. Garland and featured in the 2011 video above, along with other researchers at the San Diego School of Medicine. Funding for the research was in part provided by a Congressional allocation to the Penn State Cancer Institute of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
"As long as vitamin D receptors were present, tumor growth was prevented and kept from expanding its blood supply. Vitamin D receptors are not lost until a tumor is very advanced. This is the reason for better survival in patients whose vitamin D blood levels are high." Said Dr. Garland!
He further stated that Vitamin D has a number of anticancer effects, including the promotion of cancer cell death, known as apoptosis, and the inhibition of angiogenesis (the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor).
The researchers urge physicians to make vitamin D monitoring and optimization part of standard breast cancer care, and recommend that breast cancer patients should restore their vitamin D levels to a normal range of 30-80 ng/ml.
According to the featured findings, you need at least 30 ng/ml of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) to prevent cancer from spreading. That said, other research suggests you'd be better off with levels as high as 80 ng/ml.
In 2011, Dr. Garland's team found that a vitamin D level of 50 ng/ml is associated with a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer. (Similarly, a 2007 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine concluded that a vitamin D level of more than 33 ng/mL was associated with a 50 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer.)
In the featured video above, Grassroots Health founder Carole Baggerly interviews Dr. Garland about those 2011 findings. At that time, they discovered that in order to achieve protective levels, you have to take far more supplemental vitamin D than previously thought.
To reach a minimum protective level of 40 ng/ml of vitamin D, study participants had to take anywhere from 1,000 IUs to as much as 8,000 IUs of vitamin D3 per day, a far cry from the recommended daily allowance of 600 IUs of vitamin D for adults.
The supplemental dose ensuring that 97.5 percent of the study population achieved a serum 25(OH)D of at least 40 ng/mL was 9,600 IU/day. This study also concluded that intake of up to 40,000 IUs per day is unlikely to result in vitamin D toxicity.
Last but not least, if you do opt for a vitamin D supplement, you also need to take vitamin K2. The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body, such as your bones and teeth. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn't be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues.
Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the consequences similar to vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries. The reason for this is because when you take vitamin D, your body creates more vitamin K2-dependent proteins that move calcium around in your body.
Without vitamin K2, those proteins remain inactivated, so the benefits of those proteins remain unrealized. So remember, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. Together, these two nutrients help strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.
