Pancreatic cancer may be linked with vitamin D deficiency

Your best “D-fense”

Pancreatic cancer is a truly horrific disease. We all saw just how devastating it can be as we watched Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, waste away and then succumb to it last year. And what makes this disease even more tragic is that there may be a simple way to keep it from ever occurring.

Research has suggested pancreatic cancer, like colon, prostate, and breast cancer, may be linked with vitamin D deficiency.

Yet, while laboratory studies have suggested that vitamin D may inhibit pancreatic cancer cell growth, it’s been more difficult to prove the link in human beings. Now, a group of researchers from Boston’s famed Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that proof.

In their report, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, they state that too little vitamin D in the bloodstream may predispose people to pancreatic cancer.

In their analysis, the researchers evaluated five studies that tracked over 1,500 individuals’ health problems and diet/lifestyle patterns. In each study, the individuals were followed for a very long period–14.1 years in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS), 18.3 years in Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), 25.3 years in the Physicians’ Health Study (PHS), 12.2 years in the Women’s Health Initiative-Observational Study (WHI), and 14.4 years in the Women’s Health Study (WHS).

In these five studies, the researchers found 451 people who developed pancreatic cancer. When they compared data with everyone else in the studies, they found something dramatic.

Lower levels of vitamin D in their blood tests.

I can’t tell you that vitamin D is a guarantee against cancer, but I can tell you it’s a good way to hedge your bets. Plus, there’s evidence that type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis are also related to too little vitamin D in the bloodstream.

If you’re not taking a vitamin D-3 supplement, it’s imperative that you get at least 1,000-5,000 IU daily.

Promise me you’ll take this seriously, and that you’ll take your vitamin D supplements– starting today.