A new study from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, has shown that vitamin D has the ability to inhibit both the production and function of a cancer-enhancing protein called cMYC. This protein drives cell division, thereby accelerating cancer growth, a process known as proliferation. It has been known for many years that vitamin D could inhibit the proliferation of cancer, but this particular mechanism was not known. According to Dr. White, the lead researcher, vitamin D strongly stimulates the production of a cMYC antagonist, MXD1, which essentially shuts down the function of cMYC.
This is important information, because scientists who oppose the idea that vitamin D can prevent cancer are more likely to be persuaded when the mechanisms of that process are understood.
Remember that the most natural way to obtain vitamin D is by sunlight exposure. Also remember that sunlight exposure produces many other metabolites that have nothing to do with vitamin D: serotonin, which elevates the mood, endorphins, which also increase a sense of well-being, and nitric oxide, which lowers blood pressure and may play a part in reducing or reversing erectile dysfunction. My opinion is that non-burning sunlight exposure reduces the risk of many maladies including, but not not limited to, those maladies correlated to vitamin D deficiency.
