Posted on 11/10/2006 4:08:52 PM PST by blam
Alright, thanks for the information djf
Hey!
Free Republic is an endless source of "stuff" - as George Carlin would say
Faster then Google or Dr. Kildare
Yes it is, and there are a lot of well informed Freepers in sleepers here!
Someday you, too, will be a geezer and have little better to do than research medical stuff on the net!
Good luck!
Vitamin D may cut pancreatic cancer risk by nearly half
Eureka Alert ^ | 09.12.06 | Warren Froelich
Posted on 09/14/2006 9:10:47 PM CDT by Coleus
PHILADELPHIA -- Consumption of Vitamin D tablets was found to cut the risk of pancreatic cancer nearly in half, according to a study led by researchers at Northwestern and Harvard universities. The findings point to Vitamin D's potential to prevent the disease, and is one of the first known studies to use a large-scale epidemiological survey to examine the relationship between the nutrient and cancer of the pancreas. The study, led by Halcyon Skinner, Ph.D., of Northwestern, appears in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.
The study examined data from two large, long-term health surveys and found that taking the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of Vitamin D (400 IU/day) reduced the risk of pancreatic cancer by 43 percent. By comparison, those who consumed less than 150 IUs per day experienced a 22 percent reduced risk of cancer. Increased consumption of the vitamin beyond 400 IUs per day resulted in no significant increased benefit.
"Because there is no effective screening for pancreatic cancer, identifying controllable risk factors for the disease is essential for developing strategies that can prevent cancer," said Skinner. "Vitamin D has shown strong potential for preventing and treating prostate cancer, and areas with greater sunlight exposure have lower incidence and mortality for prostate, breast, and colon cancers, leading us to investigate a role for Vitamin D in pancreatic cancer risk. Few studies have examined this association, and we did observe a reduced risk for pancreatic cancer with higher intake of Vitamin D."
Skinner, currently in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and his colleagues analyzed data from two long-term studies of health and diet practices, conducted at Harvard University. They looked at data on 46,771 men aged 40 to 75 years who took part in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and 75,427 women aged 38 to 65 years who participated in the Nurses' Health Study. Between the two studies, they identified 365 cases of pancreatic cancer. The surveys are considered valuable for their prospective design, following health trends instead of looking at purely historical information, high follow-up rates and the ability to enable researchers like Skinner to incorporate data from two independent studies.
Pancreatic cancer is a rapidly fatal disease and the fourth-leading cause of death from cancer in the United States. This year, the American Cancer Society estimates that 32,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed. About the same number of people will die this year from the disease. It has no known cure, and surgical treatments are not often effective. Except for cigarette smoking, no environmental factors or dietary practices have been linked to the disease.
In addition to Vitamin D, the researchers also measured the association between pancreatic cancer and the intakes of calcium and retinol (Vitamin A). Calcium and retinol intakes showed no association with pancreatic cancer risk, although retinol is an antagonist of Vitamin D's ability to influence mineral balances and bone integrity. For that reason, further research is necessary to determine if Vitamin D ingestion from dietary sources, like eggs, liver and fatty fish or fortified dairy products, or through sun exposure might be preferable to multi-vitamin supplements, which contain retinol.
The potential benefits of vitamin D for pancreatic cancer were only recently established by other laboratory studies. Normal and cancerous pancreas tissue contain high levels of the enzyme that converts circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D into 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, the vitamin's active form. Other studies have shown an anti-cell proliferation effect of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, potentially inhibiting tumor cells. "In concert with laboratory results suggesting anti-tumor effects of Vitamin D, our results point to a possible role for Vitamin D in the prevention and possible reduction in mortality of pancreatic cancer. Since no other environmental or dietary factor showed this risk relationship, more study of Vitamin D's role is warranted," Skinner said.
Great article..thnx for the ping.
Health bump.
I have lived in Asia for over a decade, and though my Chinese friends think myself, my wife and my child are overweight (by their standards we are; by US standards we look like Twiggy), they marvel at how infrequently we get colds and flu compared to them.
One thing we do, especially my little one, is we drink milk--lots of it, and we are not afraid of being in the sun. In fact, living in a major urban area, whenever we have the chance of going out to a park on a sunny day, it is like going to Disneyland.
Contrast that with our Chinese friends, especially women. They typically don't drink much milk (that is changing), go to great links to avoid exposure to the sun (the women especially will stay out of sunlight) and get the flu much more often than we do.
Yes, this is anecdotal, at least insofar as my family and I are concerned.
But one thing that is not in doubt: Virulent flus almost always emerge from China--especially south China. Is it possible that there is a cultural aspect to this reality? Namely, that Chinese aversion of milk (if it has vitamin D) and aversion to the sun (which naturally creates vitamin D for us) leads to a vitamin D deficiency and, thus, reduced immunity to the flu?
Very interesting. Maybe some of those tb sanitariums which were located in the mountains did some good. I think the patients used to sit on the porches. Were the porches on the south side of the building?
If you get plenty of sun wouldn't you automatically get plenty of Vit D? Unless your skin is dark or you use lots of sunscreen.
What are the side effects of too much Vitamin D? Daily supplements could be abused if too much D is harmful.
I don't know...If someone finds out, please ping me.
I've also read that people (mostly women) who take calcium for osterporosis(sp)are wasting their time if they don't also take a sufficent amount of vitamin-D.
Blam is a busy little booger, isn't he?
Interesting set of articles; I have been taking 25mg of Toprol to control mild hypertension for 11 months using 6 ounces of milk to wash it down.
I haven't had an infection in the whole time, but then, I don't know how much vitamin D is in 6 oz of whole milk.
It sounds odd to state that a deficiency is being increased.
Cod liver oil as a tonic has been prescribed and recommended for decades for all manner of illness, my Grandma was always right, ugh - nasty tasting stuff, though.
I'm 6 feet tall and weigh 145 pounds, I'm not worried about getting fat.
I have been this size since I was 19 except for two short gains caused by overeating, weight-lifting and later snack binging.
The snack one put me up to 170 and I had to buy a new shirt, slacks and belt. Hate belts, love my size 30-32 pants and now I wear one shirt that I have had for about thirty years on special occasions (ugly thing).
At 66, I imagine that after all is said and done that I will be buried in that shirt in another 20 years or so.
Daily Vitamin D
Minimum 400IU
Optimum 400 -800 IU
Overdose 2000IU
http://www.archure.net/salus/vitamins.html
VITAMIN D EXCESS
Taking very high daily doses of vitamin D over several months can cause toxicity and a high calcium level in the blood (hypercalcemia)
Early symptomsoms are loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting, followed by excessive thirst, weakness, nervousness, and high blood pressure.
Because the calcium level is high, calcium may be deposited throughout the body, particularly in the kidneys, blood vessels, lungs, and heart.
The kidneys may be permanently damaged and malfunction. As a result, urination increases, protein passes into the urine, and the level of urea (a waste product) increases in the blood. Kidney failure may result.
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec12/ch154/ch154c.html#sec12-ch154-ch154c-116
I'm probably going to take only 200iu daily because some foods are vitamin-D fortified already and I eat a lot of (deep-sea) tuna.
Perhaps a poor choose of wording. I meant that deficiency is probably more widespread in the population because so many people are covering up from the sun. Thus, increased prevalence of vitamin D deficiency because so many people follow the latest health fads.
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