Do you do what you can to get enough vitamin d? Or do you stay inside all day playing video games and eating terrible things??
Well, you might want to change your ways, because a higher level of vitamin d intake is linked to lower cases of colon and rectal cancers!
In 18 studies that included more than 10,000 people, colon cancer risk was as much as 33 percent lower in subjects with the highest blood levels of vitamin D compared to those with the lowest levels, researchers report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Those with the highest intake of vitamin D through supplements and food had 12 percent lower risk than those with the lowest intakes.
Vitamin D has previously been linked to protection from various cancers, heart disease, diabetes and asthma, among other conditions. How the vitamin might exert a beneficial effect is still poorly understood, however. Some evidence suggests that to achieve a benefit people may need more than current recommended daily requirements.
The bad news is that a lot of people aren’t keeping up with it. In fact, 58% of adults and adolescents in the U.S. have a vitamin d deficiency!
We have to change that! Everybody should be doing everything possible to stay away from cancer — so why not add a little vitamin d to your life? Get a little sunshine (not TOO much though)??
We can do it!
[Image via AP Images.]