Add A Little More Sunshine in your Life to Avoid Prostate Cancer

A study has revealed that Vitamin D is able to prevent prostate cancer as well as increases the survival rate of prostate cancer patients. This is wonderful because as we all know, we can get Vitamin D for free - from the sun.

“…the cells treated with Vitamin D fared much better. And while the vitamin protects healthy cells, Rebecca Mason’s experiments are showing that Vitamin D has the opposite effect on cancer cells. It kills them.” - Professor Michael Holick.

Leading vitamin D researchers are suggesting that the optimum adult level seems to be 4,000 daily units which is 20 times the government level for those 50 and under. The government says 2,000 is the limit for all ages before side-effects result. The researchers disagree and say amounts considerably above 2,000 units may be warranted when considering the multitude of potential benefits.

Make sure you’re taking D3. If the label says vitamin D2, then it’s not the good kind of vitamin D. So often, you see orange juice or foods that say they’re vitamin D fortified. But many times, those are fortified with D2. Vitamin D has to be taken with fat. Taking a vitamin D pill with orange juice isn’t going to work, it won’t absorb.

Try to get brand-name recommendations. Sadly, many doctors haven’t learned about supplements in medical school, so your doctor may not be able to advise you on that. To find the best brands, do your homework. Either get names of products from people you trust, or go on the Internet and look these supplements up.

Typically, dieticians say the best source of vitamins is through the foods we eat, rather than supplements. But Judy Carr, a registered dietician and certified diabetes educator says the best food sources of vitamin D aren’t necessarily the foods we love. In December, after reading a little more about the vitamin, Carr asked her doctor to include a vitamin D analysis with her routine blood work. She was surprised when her results came back showing her levels were on the low end of normal. “I’m thinking if that’s me, because I don’t have a horrible diet, I can’t imagine what the general population’s is,” Carr says.

Dr. Michael Holick, a leading vitamin D researcher who serves as director of the general clinical research center at Boston University Medical Center, said it’s difficult to get enough vitamin D from food, noting that you’d have to eat a 3½-ounce serving of fish like salmon, mackerel or sardines “almost every day just to begin to satisfy your requirement.”

The NIH agrees. It can be difficult to obtain enough vitamin D from natural food sources. For many people, consuming vitamin D fortified foods and adequate sunlight exposure are essential for maintaining a healthy vitamin D status. In some groups, dietary supplements may be needed to meet the daily need for vitamin D.

A tablespoon of cod-liver oil contains more than 1,300 IUs. Salmon (360 IUs for 3.5 ounces), sardines (250 IUs for 13/4 ounces) and fortified milk (about 100 IUs per serving) are also good sources.

No matter what cancer you have, or are trying to prevent, the real question is should cancer patients be left vitamin D deficient? Many experts will tell you that vitamin D should not be taken for breast cancer or prostate cancer until well controlled scientific studies prove it helps. The problem with that approach is two-fold. First, you may die waiting for the studies to be conducted and two, it misses the point. The point is this: women with breast cancer should not allow themselves to be vitamin D deficient and neither should their doctors.

Finally, I’ve always thought that it’s pretty significant that the parts of the body least exposed to the sun are more likely to experience a malignant melanoma.

But a new look at 528 melanoma victims over five years also found that increased sun exposure led to increased survivability, according to the study led by Marianne Berwick of the department of internal medicine at the University of New Mexico. “It’s totally counterintuitive, and we’re trying to investigate it,” said Berwick, who is doing a similar study of 3,700 melanoma patients worldwide. “It’s really strange, because sunburn seems to be one of the factors associated with improved survival.”