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A team of researchers led by National Cancer Institute (NCI) epidemiologist Dr. Michal Freedman states that vitamin D is highly successful in reducing deaths from cancers of the colon and rectum. You would think that everyone would want to know the significance of this especially as it relates to the treatment and prevention of cancer. Tragically we find that there are people and institutions that don’t want us to know how important the sun’s ionizing radiation really is for us.
The researchers studied 16,818 people who had joined a nationwide U.S. government health survey between 1988 and 1994. The study found that people with relatively high blood levels of vitamin D when they entered the study had a 72 percent reduction in their risk of dying of colorectal cancer compared to those with lower levels of vitamin D.[i] Sadly the researchers failed to report on the positive effect of vitamin D on other kinds of cancers and the media, as usual, attacked the results like tiger sharks going after red meat. The reaction of the media to the study revealed in a rather stark way their deeply ingrained prejudice against nutritional solutions to cancer. Certainly sun worship is dead today; dermatologists would strip us of natural supplementation via healthy exposures to the sun to receive our daily requirements of Vitamin D. Dr. Ralph Moss went to great lengths to inform his readers how far the media went in emphasizing “the negative aspect of the findings, that vitamin D, as one put it, was no "magic bullet" for cancer (as if anyone said it was). Here are some of the headlines of stories that were published hours after the news of the study first broke:” - "Vitamin D May Not Reduce Cancer Deaths" (AP)
- "Vitamin D May Not Lower Risk of Cancer Deaths" (Fox)
- "Vitamin D Is Not Magic Bullet for Cancer" (Wired News)
- "Vitamin D Won't Help Prevent Most Cancers" (HealthDay)
- "Vitamin D Doesn't Prevent Cancer Deaths" (Windsor Star)
- "Vitamin D Benefit At Issue" (Ft. Worth Star)
- "No Connection Found Between Vitamin D and Overall Cancer Deaths" (Medical News Today)
- "Vitamin D Doesn't Reduce Cancer Risk" (Nutraingredients.com)
- "Vitamin D Does Not Reduce Overall Cancer Mortality" (ANI India News)
- "Vitamin D Has No Effect on Overall Cancer Death Rate" (Medical News Today, 2nd article)
- "Study Raises Questions About Vitamin D and Cancer" (KWWL Iowa)
- "Vitamin D Downgrade As Scientists Advise There is No Real Proof It Fights Cancer" (Daily Mail)
According to Dr. Moss, “The American Cancer Society anticipates that in 2007 a total of 52,180 Americans will die of colorectal cancer, representing approximately 10 percent of all cancer deaths (Cancer Facts and Figures 2007). If you prevented 72 percent of these deaths you would save 37,570 lives each year. To comprehend this graphically, the seating capacity of Fenway Park in Boston is 38,805. Thus, you could nearly fill this stadium to capacity with the people whose deaths from colorectal cancer could be avoided each and every year. Worldwide, the United Nations estimates that there are 500,000 deaths from colorectal cancer each year (W.H.O. World Cancer Report 2003). A 72 percent reduction would mean 360,000 lives saved each year. That's a lot of lives saved and a lot of misery avoided!” “A dramatic rise in the heart failure hospitalization rate now being reported over the past three decades has coincided with the use of ultraviolet-B blocking sunscreen lotions which inhibit the production of vitamin D in human skin. The rate of hospitalization for heart failure nearly tripled since 1980. The public has been urged to avoid the sun and use sun-blocking agents beginning in 1971,” writes health advocate Bill Sardi. Though medical science itself has a firm understanding of the importance of the sun and vitamin D medical and health officials and most doctors do not. These days, pouring on the sunscreen lotion has become an obsession, a Pavlov conditioned response most people have for relating to the sun. The idea is to somehow hide from the sun whenever we go outside. What we are doing is hiding from life, from the sun, from its healing rays and everything good that comes from it.
According to Australian researchers vitamin D supplements are immunesuppressive and may actually make diseases worse.[ii] Although radiation from the sun, tanning beds and other special lamps provoke increasing levels of Vitamin D through normal biological process, the State of Texas thinks it's a crime to say so.[iii] The Texas Health and Safety Code prohibits tanning salons from claiming indoor tanning devices provide health or medical benefits when in fact they do. The Food and Drug Administration actually discourages the use of tanning beds and lamps though and has not approved tanning beds as devices capable of delivering vitamin D. This is sad because such devices provide a simple, safe and natural way to keep Vitamin D levels up when one does not have access to the sun because of cloud and rain coverage or because of latitude location. Winter months make sunbathing outside for the sick and infirm difficult indeed. The dangers of sun exposure have been greatly exaggerated by the same types of people who over exaggerate and lie about many things in medicine. Sun exposure is not the major reason people develop skin cancer. Though most patients might be surprised by this, this is simply not the truth, and buying into this lie will most assuredly deprive people of the vital benefits the sun can provide. One of the most important benefits of the sun actually is to lower not raise our risk of getting cancer -- the number one cause of death today. Researchers also point out that increasing level of vitamin D3 could prevent many diseases that claim hundreds of thousands if not millions of people world each year. Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is different from other vitamins in that it influences your entire body -- receptors that respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell, from your brain to your bones. A recent Australian study shows a season pattern for heart failure peaking in winter months when vitamin D levels are typically low.[iv] It is a crying shame that modern medicine ignores the very basics of life specifically the air, water and sun as well as the food we eat. It does make a difference when we are treating cancer, or any other disease, whether we get sun or not, whether the air we breathe is clean or severely polluted, whether the water we drink is pure or full of toxic chemicals like fluoride, and of course whether our food is organic and life giving or mineral and vitamin deficient as well as full of pesticides and heavy metals. Vitamin D is important because we are often short of it.
It is made by the action of sunlight on the skin, which accounts
for 90 per cent of the body's supply. Very little comes from food.
Though light is the secret to life[v] it is easier for hard headed medical scientists to measure the life giving nurturing nature of the sun through its effect on raising vitamin D levels in the most healthy and direct manner. The newest data from the below studies reveal an inverse association of serum vitamin D with risk of colorectal and breast cancer. The protective effect began at levels ranging from 24 to 32 nanograms per milliliter of 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration in the serum. The 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is the main indicator of vitamin D status. The late winter average 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the US is about 15-18 ng/ml. The researchers maintain that increasing vitamin D levels in populations, particularly those in northern climates, has the potential to both prevent and possibly serve as an adjunct to existing treatments for cancer.[vi] Intake of 2000 IU/day of Vitamin D(3), and, when possible, very moderate
exposure to sunlight, could raise serum 25(OH)D to 52 ng/ml,
a level associated with reduction by 50% in incidence of breast cancer.[vii] --Dr. Cedric F. Garland
If vitamin D3 levels among populations worldwide were increased, 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancers could be prevented each year, according to researchers from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). This includes nearly 150,000 cases of cancer that could be prevented in the United States alone. Dr. Cedric F. Garland, cancer prevention specialist at the Moores and colleagues estimate that 250,000 cases of colorectal cancer and 350,000 cases of breast cancer could be prevented worldwide by increasing intake of vitamin D3, particularly in countries north of the equator. Vitamin D3 is available through diet, supplements and exposure of the skin to sunlight.
In the winter, the sun in Britain is barely strong enough to make the
vitamin, and by spring, say scientists, 60 per cent of the population
is deficient (defined as a blood level below 30ng per millilitre).
“For the first time, we are saying that 600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancer could be prevented each year worldwide, including nearly 150,000 in the United States alone,” said study co-author Garland, meaning if only people would pay attention to the sun and the vitamin D that comes with it much cancer can be avoided and we could infer, more people could be saved if doctors understood something about basic nutrition and naturopathic principles.
People who took vitamin D supplements for six
years reduced their risk of dying from all causes. Another new study, by scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon and the European Institute of Oncology in Milan published in Archives of Internal Medicine, reviews 18 trials involving 57,000 people found that those who took the supplements had an 7 per cent lower risk of death overall during the six-year period of the study. Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, said that the research added "a new chapter in the accumulating evidence for the beneficial role of vitamin D on health". He called for a debate on the merits of "moderate sun exposure, food fortification with vitamin D and higher dose supplements for adults".
The increasing use of sunscreens and the decreasing amount of time
spent outdoors, especially by children, has contributed to what many
scientists believe is an increasing problem of vitamin D deficiency.
The scientific evidence shows quite clearly that sunscreen actually promotes cancer by blocking the body's absorption of ultraviolet radiation, which produces vitamin D in the skin. Vitamin D, as recent studies have shown prevents cancer. Meanwhile, the toxic chemical ingredients used in most sunscreen products actually are carcinogenic and have never been safety tested or safety approved by the FDA. They get absorbed right through the skin (a porous organ that absorbs most substances it comes into contact with) and enter the bloodstream. The real risk comes from spending too long in the sun, and that using sun creams to protect against sunburn may instead promote the cancer.
The use of sunscreen products peaked in 2004 at 72%
of Americans using a sunscreen when going outdoors.
--Skin & Allergy
It is possible to overdose on oral vitamin D supplements but
there’s very little risk of overdosing on vitamin D from the sun Sunscreens have been heavily promoted as a means of protecting sunbathers but they may have the opposite effect, according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It cites Antony Young of King's College, London, who said several large scale studies over the past few years had been 'unable to tease out any clear relationship' between sunscreen use and melanoma incidence. But some studies showed sunscreens increased the incidence of melanoma.
Vitamin D works by lowering insulin resistance, which is one
of the major factors in heart disease. It is also used by the
thyroid gland, which secretes a hormone that regulates the
body's levels of calcium, which in turns helps regulate blood pressure. Mike Adams, the illustrator of the above cartoons says, “The idea that sunscreen prevents cancer is a myth. It's a myth promoted by a profit-seeking tag-team effort between the cancer industry and the sunscreen industry. The sunscreen industry makes money by selling lotion products that actually contain cancer-causing chemicals. It then donates a portion of that money to the cancer industry through non-profit groups like the American Cancer Society which, in turn, run heart-breaking public service ads urging people to use sunscreen to prevent cancer."
The optimal blood serum value for vitamin D
is 45-52 ng/ml (115-128 nmol/l).
Research by Philippe Autier of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan suggests melanoma may be at least a two- stage process, with different kinds of solar radiation causing new moles in childhood and their growth into larger moles that later become cancerous. Over the past decade, he has become convinced that sunburn is 'probably not part of the mechanism of cancer'. It may simply be a marker of people with sensitive skins who are more prone to skin cancer and who have spent too long in the sun. Sunburn may even protect against melanoma - by keeping people out of the sun. Lying in the sun longer, especially at midday when the ultraviolet rays are strongest, may raise a person's exposure above what it would have been without sunscreen. It is this intense, intentional time in the sun that is most closely linked with melanoma risk, Dr Autier said.[viii] Researchers from Winthrop University Hospital in
Mineola, New York, found that giving supplements of
vitamin D to a group of volunteers reduced episodes of
infection with colds and flu by 70 per cent over three years.
The American Cancer Society though still will not recommend that anyone take vitamin D supplements, even though the vitamin can prevent nearly 4 out of 5 cancers. It seems that the cancer industry simply has no interest in preventing cancer. It is only interested in treating cancer and profiting from those treatments.
The Sun - Magnesium – Vitamin D
Magnesium deficiency is often misdiagnosed because it does not show up
in blood tests – only 1% of the body’s magnesium is stored in the blood. All magnesium supplements have to be converted to magnesium chloride so, you might as well use the chloride form to begin with. The body cannot use vitamin D in a magnesium deficient body. Magnesium facilitates the release of calcium from bone in the presence of adequate amounts of vitamin D and parathormone.[ix] Sunlight and vitamin D are critical to all life forms. Standard textbooks state that the principal function of vitamin D is to promote calcium absorption in the gut and calcium transfer across cell membranes, thus contributing to strong bones and a calm, contented nervous system. It is also well recognized that vitamin D aids in the absorption of magnesium, iron and zinc, as well as calcium. Disorders in which magnesium (Mg) depletion is common have an associated high incidence of osteoporosis. Mg depletion in humans results in hypocalcemia, low serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) and 1,25(OH)2-vitamin D levels, as well as PTH and vitamin D resistance which may serve as mechanisms for the development of osteoporosis.[x] The link between vitamin D deficiency and heart failure is compelling.
- Among heart failure patients awaiting a heart transplant, those patients who have higher vitamin D levels are more likely to survive the waiting period prior to organ transplantation. [European Journal Heart Failure 2008 Mar; 10(3):321-7]
- Heart failure among infants is observed in cases of rickets (bone weakening) caused by a lack of vitamin D. [Heart 2008 May; 94(5):581-4]
- Heart failure is more prevalent among African Americans who dark skin pigmentation impairs vitamin D synthesis during sun exposure. [Translational Research 2006 Dec; 148(6):301-8]
- Heart failure is more prevalent among Arabic women and their offspring due to the use of traditional clothing and headwear that blocks sun/skin exposure. [European Journal Heart Failure 2006 Nov; 8(7):694-6]
- Bone loss (osteoporosis) among postmenopausal women is associated with low vitamin D levels and is more often accompanied by signs of heart failure, particularly among women who are genetically prone to vitamin D insufficiency. [Journal Internal Medicine 2003 Apr; 253(4):439-46; Journal American College Cardiology 2003 Jan 1;41(1):105-12; American Journal Medicine 1997 Sep;103(3):197-207]
- The intravenous administration of the active form of vitamin D (calcitriol) reduces the thickening of the heart wall characteristically seen in heart failure patients. [American Journal Kidney Diseases 1999 Jan; 33(1):73-81]
- As early as the 1970s doctors reported "hungry bone" syndrome and heart failure following surgical removal of the parathyroid glands. [American Journal Medical Sciences 1976 Jan-Feb;271(1):85-9] A shortage of vitamin D causes parathyroid glands to shrink.
- Adults with heart failure are less likely to be exposed to midday sun. [International Journal Vitamin Nutrition Research 2007 Jul; 77(4):280-8]
Sun Angles
Humans do indeed manufacture vitamin D from cholesterol by the action of sunlight on the skin but it is actually very difficult to obtain even a minimal amount of vitamin D with a brief foray into the sunlight.[xi] The reason it is difficult to get adequate vitamin D from sunlight is that while UV-A is present throughout the day, the amount of UV-B present has to do with the angle of the sun's rays. Thus, UV-B is present only during midday hours at higher latitudes. Sun exposure at higher latitudes before 10 am or after 2 pm will cause burning from UV-A before it will supply adequate vitamin D from UV-B. This finding may surprise you, as it did the researchers. It means that sunning must occur between the hours we have been told to avoid. Only sunning between 10 am and 2 pm during summer months (or winter months in southern latitudes) for 20-120 minutes, depending on skin type and color, will form adequate vitamin D before burning occurs.[xii] “Concerns of over-dose of vitamin D are largely unfounded given that an hour of total-body midday summer sun exposure in a sunny climate can produce up to 10,000 units of vitamin D without side effect or liver toxicity,” writes Bill Sardi. It takes about 24 hours for UV-B-stimulated vitamin D to show up as maximum levels of vitamin D in the blood. Cholesterol-containing body oils are critical to this absorption process. Because the body needs 30-60 minutes to absorb these vitamin-D-containing oils, it is best to delay showering or bathing for one hour after exposure. The skin oils in which vitamin D is produced can also be removed by chlorine in swimming pools. Tanning beds can stimulate the body to produce vitamin D, according to research conducted by Michael Holick of the University of Boston and published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. "Vitamin D deficiency is common in both children and adults worldwide," Holick said. "Exposure to lamps that emit UVB radiation is an excellent source for producing vitamin D3 in the skin." During the winter at extreme latitudes, there may not be sufficient sunlight for people to produce enough of the vitamin. A study by Holick and colleagues found that levels of vitamin D deficiency in 45 Boston residents increased steadily throughout the winter, from 49 percent in August to 67 percent in November, 74 percent in February and 78 percent in May. To test the efficacy of tanning beds in fighting vitamin D deficiency, Holick and colleagues studied 15 people between the ages of 20 and 53. All participants had their blood vitamin D levels measured at the beginning of the study and then once per week for seven weeks. They each tanned in a commercial tanning bed three times per week. After one week, vitamin D levels had increased by an average of 50 percent, and by five weeks they had increased by 150 percent from the starting point. Vitamin D levels did not increase for the next two weeks. During the summer in extreme latitudes, the body can synthesize enough vitamin D from 15 minutes of sun for light-skinned people, and 30 minutes for those with dark skin. The current suggested exposure of hands, face and arms for 10-20 minutes, three times a week, provides only 200-400 IU of vitamin D each time or an average of 100-200 IU per day during the summer months. In order to achieve optimal levels of vitamin D, 85 percent of body surface needs exposure to prime midday sun. (About 100-200 IU of vitamin D is produced for each 5 percent of body surface exposed, we want 4,000 iu.) Light skinned people need 10-20 minutes of exposure while dark skinned people need 90-120 minutes. The American Academy of Dermatology says that only a small amount of sunlight is needed for the body to manufacture vitamin D, and does not require a suntan. This kind of communication is not helpful or specific enough. Most of the RDA information from health and medical institutions tend to be far too low. When we want to heal ourselves with the sun we need a good amount of it. Latitude and altitude determine the intensity of UV light. UV-B is stronger at higher altitudes. Latitudes higher than 30° (both north and south) have insufficient UV-B sunlight two to six months of the year, even at midday.12 Latitudes higher than 40° have insufficient sunlight to achieve optimum levels of D during six to eight months of the year. In much of the US, which is between 30° and 45° latitude, six months or more during each year have insufficient UV-B sunlight to produce optimal D levels. In far northern or southern locations, latitudes 45° and higher, even summer sun is too weak to provide optimum levels of vitamin D.13-15 A simple meter is available to determine UV-B levels where you live. If sunlight is not available in your area because of latitude or season, sunlamps made by Sperti can be used to provide a natural balance of UV-B and UV-A. Used according to instructions, these lamps provide a safe equivalent of sunlight and will not cause burning or even heavy tanning. Tanning beds, on the other hand, are probably not the best means of getting daily doses of vitamin D because they provide too high levels of UV-A and too little UV-B.
References
[i] The article was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in early November 2007. The researchers were quoted as saying that the findings in colorectal cancer were consistent with other studies of vitamin D.
[ii]http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/2/12/why-vitamin-d-supplements-are-not-the-same-as-sunlight.aspx
[iii] Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sued Houston-based Darque Tan on Monday, charging the company falsely claims to reduce cancer risks by increasing vitamin D levels in the body. The lawsuit claims the company's tanning beds are approved only for cosmetic tanning, but advertising and an online video on the company's Web site suggest the devices deliver high levels of vitamin D. The Texas Health and Safety Code prohibits tanning salons from claiming indoor tanning devices provide health or medical benefits.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6105637.html
[iv] Australian New Zealand Journal Public Health. 2008 Oct; 32(5):408-13
[v] Dr. Walter Russell said, “We think, for example, that elements are different substances and that each substance is permanently existent as such. That is not true. Elements are but different conditions of light pressures. They are the raw materials for the fashioning of Creation’s images in the patterns controlled by light waves. They appear when the pressure necessary for their conditions appear and disappear when those pressure conditions cease. Every element in each octave occupies its own pressure position in its wave. Each element seems to be a different substance as the electric pressure conditions of each position in each wave of matter changes. However, it is not the substance that changes, it is the condition of the substance.”
http://www.frank.germano.com/walter_russell.htm
[vi] http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/uoc--ssm082107.php
[viii] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/4058.php
[ix] American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 29, 854-858, Copyright © 1976 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc
[x] http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Doi=57389
[xi] Glerup H, Mikkelsen K, Poulsen L et al. Commonly recommended daily intake of vitamin D is not sufficient if sunlight exposure is limited. J.Intern.Med. 2000;247:260-8.
[xii] Sayre, R. M., Dowdy, J. C., Shepherd, J., Sadig, I., Bager, A., and Kollias, N. Vitamin D Production by Natural and Artificial Sources. 1998. Orlando, Florida, Photo Medical Society Meeting. 3-1-1998. Ref Type: Conference Proceeding
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