"...I firmly believe that any cancer prevention or treatment strategy that excludes vitamin D is depriving the patient of a safe and vital immune boost to defeat the cancer.
Moreover, the current recommendation to avoid sun exposure in order to avoid skin cancer is likely increasing other more serious cancers. Prevention, after all, is worth a pound of cure, so why are people told to engage in behavior that will dramatically increase their cancer risk?
Recent research2 shows that UV abstinence is actually as dangerous as smoking when it comes to cancer and overall mortality risks. In this "competing risk" analysis, the life expectancy of sun avoiders was reduced by as much as two years when compared to those who got the highest amount of sun exposure.
As noted by Michael T. Murray, N.D. who reported and commented on these findings:3
"These results shatter conventional wisdom, but they are not new. Noted vitamin D researcher Dr. Michael Holick, warned almost a decade ago that avoiding sun exposure to prevent skin cancer results in such a drop in vitamin D levels that for every life saved from skin cancer over 100 people will lose their lives to other forms of cancer ..."
Improving Vitamin D Status Is a Key Cancer Prevention Tool
The evidence now clearly shows that once you reach a serum vitamin D level of 40 ng/ml, you see a major reduction in virtually all cancers.
The Health and Medicine Division (HMD) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine, IOM) has also reported an association between vitamin D and overall mortality risk from all causes, including cancer.4,5
So why is there such resistance against vitamin D optimization through sun exposureas a cancer prevention strategy when the scientific evidence showing the enormous benefits are right there in black and white?
Vitamin D has become one of the most well-researched nutrients out there, and studies have repeatedly demonstrated that it can significantly reduce your cancer risk, and increase your chances of surviving cancer if you do get it. 6,7
Most recently, researchers at the University of California found that women with a vitamin D serum level of 40 ng/ml or greater had a 67 percent lower risk of cancer compared to women with levels of 20 ng/ml or less.8,9,10,11,12,13,14
The study included ALL invasive cancers, with the exception of skin cancer, and had a follow-up period of nearly four years. In my view, this is a finding that simply cannot be ignored. As reported by Science Daily:15
"Primary prevention of cancer, rather than expanding early detection or improving treatment, will be essential to reversing the current upward trend of cancer incidence worldwide,' the researchers wrote.
'This analysis suggests that improving vitamin D status is a key prevention tool.'"
Vitamin D Boosts Immune Function — Your Primary Defense Against Cancer and Other Disease
While I certainly do not discount the benefits of targeted immunotherapy, it seems inadvisable to say the least to ignore the very basics of health, such as diet and lifestyle, when developing cancer treatments. This is particularly true when it comes to vitamin D, as it is indeed a very important immune booster...."
