A Cancer Research UK press release out today suggests that people with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood have a lower risk of colorectal cancer (you can read the original paper in the British Medical Journal Jenab et al 2010). This is particularly important in Scotland because we only get about 5 % of our vitamin D from our diet (mostly from oily fish) the other 95 % we produce when our bare skin is in the sun. The trouble is that in Scotland, over winter, we don’t get much sun and we tend to wear lots of clothes to keep warm!
This research finding is part of the EPIC study, a very large study conducted by the World Health Organisation, that is following over half a million people for 10 years to try and determine how diet influences cancer. This study found that those with the highest levels of vitamin D in the blood had a 40 % reduced risk of colorectal cancer.
Some people argue that we all need a lot more vitamin D and that this is one of the reasons Scotland’s health is so poor. Oliver Gillie, in particular promotes this view (see the Times -How scientists linked sunshine diet and disease, or Scotland’s poor health caused by a lack of sunshine). He runs the health research forum and you can read his book online “Scotland’s Health Deficit“. Not everyone agrees with this research, you can read more about the flaws in this sort of research at the Cancer Research UK website “Does vitamin D protect against cancer?”
So should we all take vitamin D supplements? It’s not as simple as that, we know from earlier studies that not all vitamins are good for you. However, it’s worth knowing that the Canadian Cancer Society, reccommend that Canadaians take a vitamin D supplement over winter. What about the sun? Should we give up the sunblock? Again, we know that too much UVB increases your risk of skin cancer, so too much sun is still bad for you. Where does that leave us? With the unsatisfying answer that we need more research, we simply don’t know what taking large quantities of vitamin D will do to our cells.
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Interesting research, I’ve been a fan of vitamin D for a very long time and have used quite alot of it for my health issues, I find it’s really good for energy and immune system responses, I don’t think we get enough sun in this country and maybe that’s why are cancer rates are so high these days.