X-Message-Number: 29499
Date: Mon, 7 May 2007 15:39:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: 
Subject: Vitamin D causes a 60% reduction in cancer incidence



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070428.wxvitamin28/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

Vitamin D casts cancer prevention in new light
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

>From Saturday's Globe and Mail
April 28, 2007 at 1:20 AM EDT

snip>
But perhaps the biggest bombshell about vitamin D's effects is about to
go off. In June, U.S. researchers will announce the first direct link
between cancer prevention and the sunshine vitamin. Their results are
nothing short of astounding.

A four-year clinical trial involving 1,200 women found those taking the
vitamin had about a 60-per-cent reduction in cancer incidence, compared
with those who didn't take it, a drop so large - twice the impact on
cancer attributed to smoking - it almost looks like a typographical
error.

And in an era of pricey medical advances, the reduction seems even more
remarkable because it was achieved with an over-the-counter supplement
costing pennies a day.
<

snip>
Some may view the sunshine-vitamin story as too good to be true,
particularly given that the number of previous claims of vitamin
cure-alls that subsequently flopped. "The floor of modern medicine is
littered with the claims of vitamins that didn't turn out," Dr. Cannell
allowed.

But the big difference is that vitamin D, unlike other vitamins, is
turned into a hormone, making it far more biologically active. As well,
it is "operating independently in hundreds of tissues in your
body," Dr. Cannell said.

Referring to Linus Pauling, the famous U.S. advocate of vitamin C use as
a cure for many illnesses, he said: "Basically, Linus Pauling was right,
but he was off by one letter."
<

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