VITAMIN D AND CANCER
ARE HIGHER LEVELS OF VITAMIN D ASSOCIATED WITH REDUCED CANCER RISK? ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
Vitamin D is the darling of the supplement world right now, with proponents touting vitamin D supplements for disease prevention of all types, including cancer. But a recent perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine panned the strategy, saying that current evidence points to at best a modest benefit. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, says other factors may also be involved.
NELSON: Well I wonder actually that if you begin to think about what types of things may have led to a correlation is that people who have higher vitamin D levels tend to be more active, pursue more exercise outdoors, eat a broader, more complete diet, and I wonder if it isn’t telling us that a healthy lifestyle is a healthy lifestyle and that perhaps we can’t get everything out of a bottle. That we need to change our behavior perhaps to a more healthy behavior. :24
Nelson says for now, he’d consider supplements only for people whose levels test low. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
