by Michael Ventresca
Researchers have found that people with abundant levels of vitamin D — the so-called sunshine vitamin — have a much lower risk of colon cancer.
Okay – wow. What more can be said about vitamins D? Over the past few years the scientific community’s understanding of vitamin D’s role in the body has basically made it the single most important nutrient we could take.
Here are a few of the thing we’ve recently learned about D:
- 70-90% of adults are deficient
- 70% of children have inadequate levels
It may help prevent or treat:
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Cancer (breast, colon among others)
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Osteo Arthritis
- Colds and Flu
And I’m sure more is to come.
Again, this latest batch of research focused on colon cancer. From Medicinenet.com:
For the current study, researchers looked at the link between blood levels of vitamin D as well as dietary vitamin D and calcium, and who was at risk for colorectal cancer. They based their findings on information from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer Study (EPIC), a study of more than 520,000 people from 10 Western European countries. The study participants gave blood samples and completed detailed diet and lifestyle questionnaires between 1992 and 1998.
During the follow-up period, 1,248 patients were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Researchers compared their lifestyle and diet backgrounds to the same number of healthy patients. They discovered that those with the highest blood levels of vitamin D had a nearly 40% decrease in colorectal cancer risk than those with the lowest levels.
So today I have three take-aways:
- Get your vitamin D level checked
- If you want to take vitamin D – be sure to take vitamin D3 (it’s far superior to D2)
- Most experts are now saying take at least 1,000IU D3 every day (My favorite is MegaFood’s D3 as it’s 100% whole food)
As always, it’s best to consult with your doctor – but seriously, try to do so sooner than later.
For more information on D3, listen in on my podcast with Ann Allworth Ph.D. I think it’s one of the most informative we’ve done!
[read entire Medicinenet.com article]
