Higher Vitamin D levels are Associated with Better Outcomes in Prostate Cancer Patients
There was a recent study published in the February, 2009 edition of the British Journal of Cancer that investigated vitamin D levels in prostate cancer patients. They found that prostate cancer patients that had a medium-high level of vitamin D (20 to 32 ng/ml) had a 66% increase in survival rate and those who had a high level of vitamin D (greater than 32 ng/ml) had an 80% increase in survival compared to those with a low level of vitamin D (less than 20 ng/ml).
This is a pretty amazing study when you realize that I recommend that you should have at least a vitamin D level over 50 ng/ml and ideally over 60 ng/ml. This is just another good reason to be sure that your vitamin D levels are optimal. Obviously, if you have recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer, you should get your vitamin D levels checked right away.
From Dr. Ray Strands – Health Nuggets
Diet high in omega-3 fatty acids offers protection against advanced prostate cancer
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A diet high in omega-3 fatty acids offers protection against advanced prostate cancer, even in men who carry a particular variant in the COX-2 gene that is known to raise the risk of the disease.
“Previous research has shown protection (by omega-3 fatty acids) against prostate cancer, but this is one of the first studies to show protection against advanced prostate cancer and interaction with COX-2,” Dr. John S. Witte of the University of California, San Francisco noted in a statement from the American Association for Cancer Research.
Witte and colleagues studied 466 men diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer and 478 healthy matched controls. They assessed diet using a “food frequency” questionnaire and genotyped the men for nine COX-2 variants.
The researchers report in the journal Clinical Cancer Research that increasing intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids — the kind found in dark fish, like salmon, and shellfish — was strongly associated with a decreased risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
Men who consumed the most long-chain omega-3 fatty acids had a 63 percent reduced risk of aggressive prostate cancer compared to men who consumed the least.
“Importantly,” Witte and colleagues say, this protective effect was even stronger in men who carried the COX-2 variant, rs4647310, which is a risk factor for prostate cancer.
Specifically, men with low intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and this particular variant had a more than fivefold increased risk of advanced prostate cancer. But men with high intake of omega-3 fatty acids had a substantially reduced risk, even if they carried the COX-2 rs4647310 variant.
In other words, the increased risk of prostate cancer associated with the COX-2 rs4647310 variant was “essentially reversed by increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake by a half a gram per day,” Witte said.
“If you want to think of the overall inverse association in terms of fish, where omega-3 fatty acids are commonly derived, the strongest effect was seen from eating dark fish such as salmon one or more times per week,” he added.
SOURCE: Clinical Cancer Research, online March 24, 2009.
The Truth about a recent study about MultiVitamins and Cancer & Heart Disease
At the bottom of the abstract there was a clinical trials Identifier Number: Trial Registration Number NCT0000611.
Ages Eligible for Study: 50 Years to 79 Years
Genders Eligible for Study: Female
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
Postmenopausal women ages 50 to 79.
The Trial Criteria allowed for Postmenopausal Women Ages 50 – 79 BUT excluded healthy volunteers! http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00000611/
The women were asked if they took multivitamins, and a detailed record of their vitamin of choice was kept. The Data regarding their vitamin use was accepted even if they took their multivitamin as infrequently as once a week!
He further stated: “ Taken as whole, the research on dietary supplements in the prevention of chronic diseases, is strong and consistent. To suggest that taking vitamins and minerals with a demonstrated health benefit is unnecessary sends the wrong public health message.”
There are literally thousands of research studies which have shown the benefits of many nutrients, from food and/or supplements. To ignore such a large body of research and depend solely upon our food supply to provide the level of nutrition that can keep us healthy makes absolutely no sense.
We can trust in the science and integrity of a company like Usana; the longer we maintain the health of our cells on a regular basis, the greater the benefit as we age.
Joan E. Baumann