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A new study finds that people who take vitamin D supplements may have a lower risk of developing advanced cancer and even fatal cancer.
And a study by Harvard University experts found that people who took the daily pill were 17% less likely to have advanced cancer.
And those of a healthy weight would likely have benefited, with the risk reduced by 38%.
This comes at a time when mounting evidence indicates that the “sunshine vitamin” may also be protective against the Corona virus.
Vitamin D is primarily known to help regulate calcium and phosphate, which are essential minerals for the development and maintenance of healthy bones, teeth and muscles.
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But in recent years, evidence has increased that vitamin D – which we absorb mainly from sunlight – also participates in the life cycle and growth of many types of cells, including those that make up the immune system.
Harvard’s new research, published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, ignores the preliminary results of a study of 25,000 people published in 2018.
Researchers initially believed that there was no benefit from taking vitamin D, as they did not find that the incidence of cancer diagnoses was reduced overall.
But they were baffled that cancer deaths were lower among those taking the supplements.
And a secondary analysis, published recently, found that this anomaly could be explained by the fact that vitamin D appears to stop metastatic cancers, those aggressive types that spread to other parts of the body.
Researcher Dr. Paulette Chandler, a primary care physician and epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston at Harvard University, said vitamin D is a readily available and inexpensive supplement that has been used and studied for decades. .
More than 25,000 people participated in the study, which lasted more than five years.
Participants included men aged 50 or older and women aged 55 or older who did not have cancer at the start of the study.
The test subjects were divided into four groups: the first group took a daily dose of vitamin D with omega-3. The second group took vitamin D in addition to a placebo, while the third group took omega-3s in addition to a placebo, and the fourth group took fake Solo drugs.
Initial results showed no statistical differences in overall cancer rates, but a reduction in cancer-related deaths was observed.
In their secondary analysis, Dr. Chandler and colleagues assessed the risk of developing advanced cancer – metastatic and advanced forms of the disease – among participants who took or did not take vitamin D supplements during the study.
They also looked at whether an individual’s BMI played a role.
Among the participants, 1,617 people were diagnosed with breast, prostate, colon, rectal and lung cancer over the next five years.
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Of those who received vitamin D, 226 were diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer, compared with 274 who received a placebo. Among those of healthy weight who took vitamin D, 58 people were diagnosed with advanced cancer compared with 96 people who took a placebo.
The team said they found no association between omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and advanced cancer.
Researchers believe that obesity and associated inflammation may reduce the effectiveness of vitamin D.
Dr Chandler said, “Our findings, along with results from previous studies, support the ongoing evaluation of vitamin D supplementation for the prevention of metastatic cancer – a biologically plausible connection. Further studies focusing on cancer patients are warranted. investigating the role of BMI “. “.
Most research on vitamin D and cancer shows a link between people who get enough vitamin and have lower rates of disease, less severe cancers, and a reduced risk of dying from the disease.
In laboratory studies, activating vitamin D against cancer cells has shown that it can reduce their growth and prevent them from multiplying and spreading.
This may have something to do with the role vitamin D plays in the life cycle of cells, killing unhealthy cells, but scientists are still investigating whether what they saw in the confines of a petri dish was also true in the body. human.
Source: Daily Mail
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