The founding director of GrassrootsHealth, Carole Baggerly is here to increase awareness about vitamin D and the important part it plays in many aspects of the nation’s health.
Carole is one of the leading researchers in the study of vitamin D, and her reason behind it? As a breast cancer survivor, she attributes a big part in her survival to vitamin D.
Increasing your vitamin D levels may also help prevent more than 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers.
There has been many theories linking vitamin D deficiency to cancer, and they have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and the understanding of its physiological basis has come from over 2,500 clinical studies.
One study completed by Joan Lappe and Robert Heaney in 2007 involved a group of menopausal women who were given enough vitamin D to raise their serum levels to 40 ng/ml.
The amazing results were that these women experienced a 77 percent reduction in the incidence of all cancers across the board after only four years.
40 ng/ml is only really a modest level, what could even more vitamin D do in the fight against cancer? Latest findings suggests the serum level ideal for vitamin D is 50 to 70 ng/ml.
Breast Cancer Could Be 90% Preventable Using JUST Vitamin D
Breast cancer is so highly linked to vitamin D that hes been called “vitamin D deficiency syndrome.” Other factors may also play a part in the onset of cancer such as lifestyle and genetics, but with every emerging study, the link between breast cancer and vitamin D becomes clearer.
Carole Baggerly believes that 90 percent of ordinary breast cancer is related to vitamin D deficiency.
Given that vitamin D deficiency can be 100% prevented, this has huge implications of women’s health in terms of preventing cancer.
Carole is referring only to more common types of breast cancer, not inflammatory breast cancer and other unique forms of breast cancer.
Vitamin D Can Destroy Cancer Cells
The link between vitamin D deficiency and breast cancer was also noticed by Dr. Cedric F. Garland of the University of California’s San Diego Moores Cancer Center.
Garland noted that in nearly all forms of breast cancer, vitamin D works by affecting the structure of your epithelial cells.
These cells are held together by a glue-like substance called E-cadherin, which provides structure to the cell. E-cadherin is made up of mostly vitamin D and calcium.
If you have a shortage of vitamin D, the structure falls apart and the cells do what they are programmed to do, that is multiply. Cancer can occur when this cell growth process, called cell proliferation gets out of hand.
If breast cancer is already in progress the addition of vitamin D can help kill cancer cells by replenishing E-cadherin.
As the cancer growth slows down, your immune system then starts to get ahead of the cancer cells, as there are less of them to deal with.
This theory is Dr. Garland’s DINOMIT theory and it has been corroborated by other studies done by different researchers which reached the same conclusion.
How Best To Incorporate Vitamin D
One of the best ways of ensuring your body gets it’s daily dose of vitamin D is by taking in natural sunlight, for no more than 20 minutes between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm, as a general rule. There doesn’t appear to be a risk of vitamin D toxicity from ultraviolet B exposure.
With an oral supplement, studies suggest you need about 8,000 IU’s of oral vitamin D3 per day in order to get serum levels above 40 ng/ml.
Remember that if you take oral vitamin D, you also need to boost your vitamin K2, with either food choices or a supplement, as vitamin K2 deficiency is what can produce the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, that is inappropriate calcification which may lead to hardening of your arteries.
The Institute of Medicine however has said that taking vitamin D3 daily is very safe, saying that taking up to 10,000 IU per day poses no real risk for negative effects.
Reference: organicandhealthy.org
