Some solid research on vitamin D was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The new research confirms the case made by some specialists that vitamin D is a powerful cancer preventive and most people should get more of it.
“The findings … are a breakthrough of great medical and public health importance,” according to Cedric Garland, a vitamin D researcher at the University of California-San Diego. “No other method to prevent cancer
Vitamin D helps regulate cell growth, a fundamental biological process that goes haywire in cancer.
The researchers at Creighton University in Omaha focused on 1,179 seemingly healthy women with an average age of 67. The women were divided into three groups: 446 received calcium and vitamin D3 supplements, a similar number received calcium alone, and 288 received a placebo.
The research team gave 1,000 IU daily of vitamin D.
Originally, the researchers intended to check mainly for the effects of calcium on bone health. Their interest in cancer risk was secondary. However, the lower cancer risk stood out. Only 13 women, or 3 percent, developed cancer over four years of calcium and vitamin D supplements. With calcium alone, 17 women, or 4 percent, got cancer. With a placebo, cancer appeared in 20 women, or 7 percent.
That shows a 60 percent lower cancer risk over four years in the group taking both supplements, compared to patients taking placebos. And when the first-year cancers were excluded — the ones mostly likely present before the study began — the findings were stronger still: a 77 percent lower risk for the combo group.
While the calcium-only group lowered its four-year cancer risk by 47 percent compared to the untreated group, it did no better when early cancers were excluded. That suggests calcium alone may have done little in this experiment, the researchers said.
Experts reviewing the study focused on vitamin D as the powerful agent in the combo group, but it can’t be ruled out that calcium might somehow amplify the effect of vitamin D.
When vitamin D3 is taken with vitamin K2, our body absorbs and utilizes more of it. Wise D3 + K2 is an excellent formula that combines these 2 essential vitamins.
