A diet rich in Vitamin D may help you ward off breast cancer risks in future. A study published in the health journal Plos One, by the researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine said that higher levels of Vitamin D were associated with decreasing risk of breast cancer.
The main form of Vitamin D in the blood is in the form of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D(25(OH)D) concentrations which were chosen as the marker to make the study to find the relation between breast cancer and the level of Vitamin D in the body. Two randomised clinical trials were conducted by the scientists which involved 3325 combined participants and also a prospective study involving 1713 participants.
Women of 55 years or more had been chosen for the studies where the average age group set was 63. Data needed for the studies were collected between 2002 and 2017. Before starting the studies it had been made sure that the participants were free of cancer and they were followed for a mean period of four years. The researchers conducted timely study visits to measure the Vitamin D level in the blood.
Over the course of the combined studies, 77 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed for an age-adjusted incidence rate of 512 cases per 100,000 person-years.
In a 2010 study by the Institute of Medicine, which is now the National Academy of Medicine, a health advisory group to the federal government, recommended minimum 20ng(nanogram)/ml of 25(OH)D in blood plasma. But the California University researchers identified the minimum level to be 60ng/ml.GrassrootsHealth, a health advisory group advocated higher levels of minimums for health blood serum levels of Vitamin D, as much as 50ng/ml. The matter still remains the subject of a hot debate.
The Principal Investigator and co-author of the California University Study report, Cedric F.Garland said that the participants with the 25(OH)D blood serum levels more than 60ng/ml had one-fifth the risk of breast cancer compared to those with less than 20ng/ml. Through this, it has become evident that the risk of cancer appears to decline with greater levels of serum Vitamin D.
Garland anyhow emphasised the need for a further research because their study was limited to postmenopausal breast cancer. If the high 25(OH)D levels will be able to prevent premenopausal breast cancer, to know that further studies are going to be conducted.
