Researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute have found no link between vitamin D concentrations in the blood and probability of prostate cancer in men. They had tracked the vitamin D concentrations in the blood of 749 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 781 men who did not have the disease.
Jiyoung Ahn, one of the researchers, is quoted as stating, “In our study, we didn’t see any protective effect of vitamin D in relation to prostate cancer risk.” The complete results of the study were published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute yesterday.
The suggestion that vitamin D might have a protective and preventive effect in prostate cancer has long been discussed, but this study would appear to finally lay this theory to rest.
Note: Patients should bear in mind that although vitamin D has no specific benefit in the management or prevention of prostate cancer, it does have other specific health benefits. It is well demonstrated, for example, that vitamin D has benefits in the prevention of colorectal cancer and in the management of a range of other disorders.
Filed under: Management, Prevention, Tips, Treatment
From: Sherry Rogers MD Total Wellness newsletter April, 2008
“It could be any time now when you will hear that vitamin D doesn’t help prevent hip fractures, osteoporosis, cancer, depression, infection-fighting, multiple sclerosis, falls, muscle weakness, and more. I know many of you were happy that your doctors actually measured your vitamin D levels and found them low.
D2 is ergocalciferol, D3 is cholecalciferol. They are totally different chemicals with different actions in the human body. First of all D3 is four times more potent than synthetic D2. But worse, they do not act the same way in the body chemistry, and in fact D2 falsely gives D 3 a bad rap….. the media has hyped stories about how ineffective various nutrients are like vitamin E. They were right but for the wrong reasons.
The form of Vitamin E they used does not do all the miraculous things that real Vitamin E does. In a nutshell they used synthetic Vitamin E, under dosed it, and/or used only one of the eight parts of Vitamin E, alpha tocopherol. So of course it came out looking no good. The same may soon happen with Vitamin D. Unknowledgeable chemists and physicians have assumed that vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 are synonymous and interchangeable. This is absolutely wrong. Therefore a study using the cheap vitamin D does not help. But again it’s because they used the wrong form. Lets look at the difference.
Vitamin D2 can be made in plants, but it is synthetically made from a process that irradiates the ergot mold. This mold is known to be a cause of abortion and other medical problems in animals. It also produces ergocalciferol, which is then licensed and patented by the drug industry.
Vitamin D3 on the other hand is created in fish, animals and plants.
Mitochondria are tiny kidney bean shaped organelles inside our cells food molecules are transformed into energy. One mitochondria enzyme (CYP27A1) will only hydrolyzyze Vitamin D3. It will not effect D2. D2 has a greater potential for becoming toxic in the human body. D2 has a poorer attachment to the protein that carries Vitamin D through the body. Therefore two and one half times more vitamin D2 is needed to achieve the same dose as D3. Sometimes as much as up to a ten fold increase is needed to achieve the same dose as D3.”
Hougton L, Vieth R, The case against ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as a vitamin supplement, Am J. Clin Nutrition, 84:694-7,2006
Armas LAG, Hollis BW, Heany RP, Vitamin SD2 is much less effective the D3 in humans, J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 89:5387-91, 2004
Vieth R, et al, Risk assessment for Vitamin D, Am J Clin Nutr,85:6-18,2007