Friday, May 16, 2008

another one for the 'if only' files

First we find out that Vitamin D is thought to prevent breast cancer.

Then came today's news that breast cancer is more likely spread in women who are deficient in the sunshine vitamin (from the Globe and Mail):

Women diagnosed with breast cancer are nearly twice as likely to have the disease spread to other parts of their bodies and are 73 per cent more likely to die from it if they have low levels of vitamin D, according to a Canadian study...younger women tended to have the lowest levels because they generally didn't use vitamin D supplements, which older women often take to prevent bone fractures.

“Vitamin D deficiency is common,” observed Pamela Goodwin, senior investigator at Mount Sinai Hospital's Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto and principal researcher on the study. “It's associated with high-grade tumours, and in our data set, it's associated with an increased risk of [cancer spread] and death.”

2 comments:

Sepha said...

These things always infuriate me - because they make me feel guilty. And I don't need any more of that. I know this is potentially important for other people and I hope it will be - but it doesn't half make me feel bitter....
Ah well, as you say, 'if only'!

Rebe said...

I think I heard this story on the news. Then commentary after it was about how spending more time in the sun to get the Vitamin D will increase the risk of skin cancer. I guess we'll just have to pick which cancer we want to fight.