Apparently the supplement to be taking is Vitamin D. I’m not one to make lifestyle changes based on one study or two. But if we really do see results like this published this summer I may just order up some Vitamin D. According to FuturePundit, “A study coming out in June will report a more than halving of the incidence of cancer by taking vitamin D supplements.”
But perhaps the biggest bombshell about vitamin D’s effects is about to go off. In June, U.S. researchers will announce the first direct link between cancer prevention and the sunshine vitamin. Their results are nothing short of astounding.
A four-year clinical trial involving 1,200 women found those taking the vitamin had about a 60-per-cent reduction in cancer incidence, compared with those who didn’t take it, a drop so large — twice the impact on cancer attributed to smoking — it almost looks like a typographical error.
Be prepared to jettison all that advice about avoiding sunshine to prevent cancer.
Another study concludes that vitamin D2 from supplements is not as effective as natural vitamin D3 from moderate UV light exposure on skin. See: http://www.electricbeachtan.net/Vit_D2_vs_D3.pdf
Depending on your skin type, just 1 or 2 sessions in a tanning bed will produce all the healthy vitamin D3 your body can use.
And the good doctors at Harvard Medical School’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute concluded in their study that tanning, in fact, protects against skin cancer. See: http://www.dana-farber.org/abo/news/press/2007/guardian-of-the-genome-protein-found-to-underlie-skin-tanning.html
So, moderate tanning is healthy behavior. Just don’t sunburn.
Comment by Jim Wint — 6 May, 2007 @ 10:53
I approved that comment in spite of it being a commercial for Jim’s tanning salon. It may well be, as I indicated, that getting sunlight is important. I’ll want to see several studies about D2 vs D3 before deciding, though.
Comment by buttle — 6 May, 2007 @ 10:58