ZestNow.com Releases Report That Vitamin D May Prevent Breast Cancer

ZestNow.com Releases Report That Vitamin D May Prevent Breast Cancer

Vitamin D May Prevent Breast Cancer

(PRWEB) December 14, 2011

A daily dose of 4000-8000 IU of vitamin D reduces by half the risk of breast cancer and other diseases according to new studies. These dosages far exceed the commonly stated minimum daily requirements.

Women over 50 are at greatest risk for breast cancer and are also least likely to spend substantial time outdoors absorbing vitamin D from the sun.

“We found that daily intakes of vitamin D by adults in the range of 4000-8000 IU are needed to maintain blood levels of vitamin D metabolites in the range needed to reduce by about half the risk of several diseases – breast cancer, colon cancer, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes,” said Cedric Garland, DrPH., professor of family and preventive medicine at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

The recommended minimum daily value (the figure used on supplements) is still only 600 IU a day. 4000 IU a day is now considered safe by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. According to a recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, only 10 percent of the US population has levels in this range, mainly people who work outdoors.

Women over 50 are least likely to be among those outdoor workers.

“I was not surprised by this,” said Robert P. Heaney, MD, of Creighton University, a distinguished biomedical scientist who has studied vitamin D need for several decades. “This result was what our dose-response studies predicted, but it took a study such as this, of people leading their everyday lives, to confirm it.”

The study reports on a survey of several thousand volunteers who were taking vitamin D supplements in the dosage range from 1000 to 10,000 IU/day. Blood studies were conducted to determine their level of 25-vitamin D – the form in which almost all vitamin D circulates in the blood.

“Now that the results of this study are in, it will become common for almost every adult to take 4000 IU/day,” Garland said. He added that people who may have contraindications should discuss their vitamin D needs with their family doctor.

“Now is the time for virtually everyone to take more vitamin D to help prevent some major types of cancer, several other serious illnesses, and fractures,” said Heanley.

The research findings by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha are published in the journal Anticancer Research.

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