By: Marc Sorenson, Sunlight Institute–
The evidence of the relationship of vitamin D deficiency to increased risk of breast cancer (BC) continues to mount. The latest indication of the crying need for sunshine was recently reported in the July 2013 issue American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.[1] In this research, the serum levels of vitamin D among 120 Saudi women with BC were compared to 120 controls who were BC-free. Questionnaires were given to each group to determine medical and dietary background so that those factors could also be considered as possible causes.
The research showed that women who serum levels were below 10 ng/ml had 6 times the risk of having BC as those whose levels were above 20 ng/ml. Interestingly, both 10 and 20 ng/ml indicate severe deficiency, and one must wonder if even higher levels of vitamin D could have correlated to an even lower risk of the disease. We may never know, since it unlikely that the lifestyles of these women could produce levels much higher than 20 ng/ml; they receive too little sunlight.
This is a result that should have been expected, as it has been known for some time that lack of sunlight and/or vitamin D has a profound predictive influence for increased breast-cancer risk. Remember that about 80-90% of vitamin D is produced by the skin in response to sunlight exposure; therefore, research on vitamin D deficiency and disease is really research on lack of sunlight.
Let’s stop the insanity and get back to regular, non-burning sunlight exposure.
[1] Yousef FM, Jacobs ET, Kang PT, Hakim IA, Going S, Yousef JM, Al-Raddadi RM, Kumosani TA, Thomson CA. Vitamin D status and breast cancer in Saudi Arabian women: case-control study. Am J Clin Nutr 2013;98(1):105-10.
