How Vitamin D Helps to Prevent Cancer

Many recent reports show that vitamin D is far more than just a hormone that strengthens bones. It is necessary for maintaining a healthy immune system. Every day, your body produces millions of cancer cells, and your immunity is supposed to search out and destroy these cells. However, when you lack vitamin D, your immunity is less able to destroy cancer cells. A study from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, showed that women had a 77 percent lower rate of cancer in the second through fourth years of taking calcium and vitamin D pills than women taking placebos. Journal reference

The only really rich food source of vitamin D is fatty fish. Very few people are able to meet their needs for vitamin D from the foods that they eat and have to depend on sunlight to cause their skins to manufacture it. But concern about skin cancer has encouraged many people to avoid direct exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D deficiency is common in northen latitudes, particularly in people who have dark skin that blocks ultraviolet light. It is also common in overweight people because fat cells hold on to vitamin D and prevent it from being utilized. People who are at risk for vitamin D deficiency can ask their doctors to order a blood test to measure vitamin D levels. If low, they may need more sunlight, more fatty fish or vitamin D supplements.