Vitamin D May Ward Off Prostate Cancer

Getting a little sunshine may be one way for men to cut their risk of prostate cancer. A large study presented at a cancer conference Thursday found that men with higher levels vitamin D in their blood were half as likely to develop aggressive forms of the disease than those with lower amounts.

Doctors see little harm in getting the 15 minutes a day that the body needs to make enough of this nutrient.

The study, which involved nearly 15,000 men in the Physicians' Health Study at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, found that men who consumed a lot of calcium had modestly higher rates of prostate cancer.

The new findings fit with that notion, because too much calcium lowers vitamin D, and are especially believable because researchers got them by measuring blood samples rather than relying on what men said they ate — an imprecision that has hurt past studies of food and cancer risk.

Courtesy of Associated Press 2/18/05

Bonnie - For those of us who live in cold climates and do not get daily sunshine, cod liver oil is the most bioavailvble form of vitamin D, and you get extra omega 3's to boot!