Recent studies indicate that keeping vitamin D levels high may reduce risk of serious diseases, including breast cancer in women and cardiovascular disease in men.
A pair of new studies highlight even more vitamin D benefits for both sexes,
indicating that keeping blood levels of the sunshine vitamin high may help prevent cardiovascular disease in men and could reduce the risk of breast cancer in women.
A study by the Harvard School of Public Health, reported in the June issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, concluded that men who had a high intake of D vitamin (600 IU per day or more) were 28 percent less likely to have cardiovascular disease than men whose intake was low (100 IU per day or less).
The study analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which tracked over 74,000 women and more than 44,500 men from 1984 through 2006. All subjects were free of cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the studies and by the conclusion 9,886 cases of cardiovascular disease had been identified.
The Harvard researchers said that after making adjustments for other risk factors, there was a definite correlation between high intake of vitamin D and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease in men. Interestingly, though women with a high D vitamin intake were 16 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease, the research found the association not statistically significant.
Another new study reported in the June issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that vitamin D deficiency may play a role in risk for breast cancer.
The research, led by Laura N. Anderson of Prevention and Cancer Control, Cancer Care Ontario, tracked the number of hours women of various ages spent outdoors and correlated the exposure to sunlight with breast cancer risk. The women were analyzed in four age groups of ranging from adolescence through mid-70s.
Using 6 hours a week outdoors as a base comparison, it was found that adolescents who spent 21 hours or more outdoors per week were 29 percent less likely to develop breast cancer. Using the same comparison, women in the 20s-30s age group demonstrated a 26 percent risk reduction, while women in the 40s-50s group were at 39 percent less risk and women in the oldest age group showed an amazing 50 percent lower risk.
The study concluded that increased cutaneous production of vitamin D is associated with reduced breast cancer risk.
These studies are the latest of many indicating that D vitamin deficiency increases risk of a whole host of diseases and health conditions. In addition to cancer and cardiovascular disease, deficiency has been associated with increased risk of diabetes, autism, depression, multiple sclerosis, brain function problems, and autoimmune, kidney, periodontal, and hematologic diseases.
