Vitamin D Deficiency Behind Many Western Cancers?

twilight30 wrote us with a link to an article in the Globe and Mail. If further study bears out the findings, new research into the causative agents behind disease and cancer may have a drastic impact on the health of citizens in Canada and the US. According to a four-year clinical trial, there's a direct link between cancer and Vitamin D deficiency. "[The] trial involving 1,200 women, and found those taking the vitamin had about a 60-per-cent reduction in cancer incidence, compared with those who didn't take it, a drop so large — twice the impact on cancer attributed to smoking — it almost looks like a typographical error. And in an era of pricey medical advances, the reduction seems even more remarkable because it was achieved with an over-the-counter supplement costing pennies a day. One of the researchers who made the discovery, professor of medicine Robert Heaney of Creighton University in Nebraska, says vitamin D deficiency is showing up in so many illnesses besides cancer that nearly all disease figures in Canada and the U.S. will need to be re-evaluated. 'We don't really know what the status of chronic disease is in the North American population,' he said, 'until we normalize vitamin D status.'"

Comments

Yeah...

[Anonymous Coward]

See the high suicide rate in Seattle is making more sense. We're not depressed, we're just getting the cancer before it gets us. Scorched Earth oncology.

Re:Is this as big as I think it is?

[aussie_a]

Well the study was only done with women Lord Duran. I don't think dressing up in women's clothing will get you the 60% boost in your cancer avoidance abilities.

Amazing article, predictable ending

[mshurpik]

TFA: >Referring to Linus Pauling, the famous U.S. advocate of vitamin C use as a cure for many illnesses, he said: "Basically, Linus Pauling was right, but he was off by one letter."

OK, who else had the feeling that they were going to bash vitamin C before the end of the article?

Hey Everybody!

[mavi_yelken]

Get naked and get out! you know.. for Vitamin D synthesis.

Re:Hey Everybody!

[Dogtanian]

Get naked and get out! you know.. for Vitamin D synthesis. The prospect of the Slashdot readership (overweight or skinny nerds) running about the streets naked, exposing their skin to the sun for the first time in years does not appeal to me. :-6

In fact, the sun reflecting off all that pasty-white flesh is likely to blind many people and cause traffic accidents.

Re:Is this as big as I think it is?

[aussie_a]

then again, you could also get out of your house/office/hacker dungeon once in a while... Except wouldn't that result in an increase in cancer? I think I'll stay in my hacker dungeon thankyouverymuch.

slashdot is deteriorating

[someone1234]

Hmm, bash, C and linus in one sentence and it isn't about Linux.

Re:Less Cancer Among those who Buy Supplements?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I bet you it was the freakin' SUN, that Sun is always trying to sucker people into getting outdoors.

Re:Confusing

[Rich0]

Or you can just take pills and not worry about either...

Re:now the counter argument... ?

[jonadab]

> The main source of vitamin D in humans is through exposure to sunlight.

I'm pretty sure that's not true in my case. In the first place, I drink a lot of milk, which is most likely fortified with vitamin D, and in the second place, my skin is roughly the same color as milk, because I spend 165+ hours a week indoors.