Attention, chocolate lovers: You may not be able to help yourselves. Swiss and British scientists have linked the widespread love of chocolate to a chemical "signature" that may be programmed into our metabolic systems.
Read more health news
Vitamin D deficiency can increase cancer risk
Vitamin D can reduce the risk of many types of cancer by block the growth of new blood vessels that allow cancer to thrive, a process known as angiogenesis.
It can also stimulate cell adherence and "enhance intercellular communication through gap junctions, thereby strengthening the inhibition of cancer cell growth that results from tight physical contact with adjacent cells within a tissue," Dr. Cedric F. Garland and colleagues note in their article, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Garland, from the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, and his colleagues performed a search of published studies, identifying 63 observational studies on vitamin D and its association with cancers of the colon, breast, prostate and ovary.
Twenty of 30 studies of colon cancer or precancerous colon polyps found a statistically significant benefit of vitamin D. Similar results were observed for 9 of 13 studies concerning breast cancer risk, 13 of 16 studies concerning prostate cancer risk, and 5 of 7 studies concerning ovarian cancer.
The authors recommend supplementing the diet with 800 to 1000 IU vitamin D per day, and believe that dosages up to 1000 IU per day would not produce toxicity.
SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, February 2006.