Boosting Levels of Vitamin D

Boosting Levels of Vitamin D
'could cut cancer by up to 25%'

Giving everyone higher levels of vitamin D as part of a public health drive could cut the incidence of breast cancer by a quarter and bowel cancer by a third, scientists say.

The finding is based on a review of 2,750 research studies involving vitamin D - which show that taking daily supplements could play a key role in cancer prevention.

Vitamin D - often called 'bottled sunshine' - is made by the action of sunlight on the skin.

Sun saviour: Vitamin D, which is made by the action of sunlight on the skin, is effective in preventing cancer and conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, claim scientists.

But the gloomy weather and long winter in countries north of 30 degrees latitude such as the UK leaves people deficient of the vitamin between October and March.

A US and Canadian government taskforce is examining whether the current recommendation for people to achieve a blood level of vitamin D equivalent to taking 200-600 international units (IU) a day should be increased.

The same level is recommended in the UK, where official policy is that sun exposure and diet (oily fish and eggs contain vitamin D) are sufficient to achieve it, without supplements, for most adults.

But an increasing body of cancer and other medical experts say a healthy intake of vitamin D should be five to 10 times higher.

Writing in the Annals of Epidemiology, Professor Cedric Garland and colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, say if everyone took 2,000 IUs of vitamin D a day - the current maximum recommended in Canada - it would save an estimated 200,000 cases of breast cancer and 250,000 cases of bowel cancer worldwide.

He first recognised the link when, as a young doctor in the late 1970s, he used to drive with his brother across the US from sunny California to John Hopkins University on the snowy east coast.

He found bowel cancer was more common in the north and east of the country than in the south and west and while cancer specialists at the time looked for an explanation in the amount of fibre in the diet or the way meat cooked on a barbecue, the Garland brothers suspected a link with climate.

But 25 years later their ideas are being taken more seriously.

Vitamin D has attracted increasing attention in recent years as its role in preventing cancer and other conditions including heart disease, diabetes and multiple sclerosis, has been revealed.

The weight of evidence has grown so dramatically that governments around the world are reviewing their recommendations. As well as the US and Canadian government taskforces on vitamin D, the Scottish government is taking expert advice.

Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have been awarded a £225,000 grant to investigate the link between low levels of vitamin D in Scotland and bowel cancer.

The pressure is now on the Department of Health in England to respond.