Vitamin D Cuts Cancer Risk: Study

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In all, a total of 50 women got non-skin cancers during the study, with breast cancer the most common. The other cancers included lung and colon tumors.

The findings are published in the June edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In May, Harvard Medical School researchers reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine that high intakes of vitamin D and calcium cut the risk of breast cancer by nearly one-third in premenopausal women, but not women past menopause.

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Dr. Michael Holick, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at the Boston University School of Medicine and a long-time vitamin D researcher, said the Lappe study adds to growing evidence of the health and disease-fighting effects of vitamin D.

"It's very clear the data are significant," he said of the Lappe study.

Vitamin D is thought to act through the immune system to help prevent the formation of abnormal cells, Lappe said.

To date, both Lappe and Holick said, high intake of vitamin D has been found to reduce the risk of many forms of cancer as well as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure.

Both researchers think the current recommendations for daily vitamin D intake should be boosted. The U.S. Institute of Medicine, which makes recommendations on vitamin and mineral requirements, considers 200 IUs of vitamin D adequate for children and adults up to age 50; 400 IUs adequate for adults 51 to 70, and 600 for those 71 and older. The levels aren't Recommended Dietary Allowances, or RDAs, because the institute doesn't think there's enough evidence to establish an RDA for vitamin D.

"I think it's safe to say the current recommendations are much too low," Lappe said, adding that postmenopausal women should "probably be taking 1,100 IUs a day."

She recommends vitamin D3 supplements, the type used in the study, over D2, because D3 is more active, she said.

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