I recently ran across a few studies that looked at the role of Vitamin D levels on cancer that I had never seen before. I have become very interested in Vitamin D for 2 reasons.
#1 It became very clear early on the Covid pandemic that one of the main factors that determined whether or not covid would kill you instead of giving you flu-like symptoms for a few days was Vitamin D. There were 2 studies done, the most important one came out of New Orleans that showed a very clear inverse relationship between Vitamin D levels and covid morbidity. It wasn’t published until February of 21 but we had the preprint in the early summer of 20 and the results were astounding. The fact that it came from New Orleans was important because of the high black population there and the darker your skin, the less Vitamin D you can make from sunlight so you had a wide spectrum of Vitamin D levels to look at in the population. My opinion is this is why covid was so much more deadly in the black community.
#2 I have talked in the past about how bad I think statins are for overall health. I don’t believe low cholesterol is a health marker anyone should be tracking or that most people should be on a statin to lower cholesterol. That’s my opinion, no one should take it as health advice. The most astounding thing is cholesterol is the substrate for every hormone in the body and what your body uses to convert sunlight into Vitamin D. It stands to reason that lower cholesterol numbers will result in lower hormones your body needs and lower Vitamin D levels. Since low Vitamin D levels are correlated so strongly with poor health, it stands to reason that keeping your cholesterol levels artificially low will result in worse long term health results.
The area that I am beginning to look into now is the effect of Vitamin D on cancer rates and am really surprised at how much science has been done on the subject already and it is something that needs to be more widely known. Let’s look at 2 studies I’ve come across so far.
First is a study from 2022 that showed an inverse relationship between Vitamin D levels and 12 types of cancer. If I told you there was a pill you could take that costs less than a penny a day that significantly lowered your risk 12 kinds of cancer, would you take it? What if I told you you could get the effect for free if you spent 15-30 minutes a day in the sun? Would that be valuable information? That again seems like information everyone should be told about in the doctor’s office every time you go in but that message isn’t getting across.
The second study is from 2009 and showed that if we can get the average Vitamin D levels to between 40-60 ng/mL (Current average in the US is 28 ng/mL) we could prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year, and three fourths of deaths from these diseases in the United States and Canada. Those are stunning numbers, especially when you consider the financial burden on the average American of getting those diseases. It could litereally mean the difference between retiring with dignity and losing everything you’ve worked for your entire life. Absolutely stunning numbers. And what would it take to get your levels there? A 2000 IU Vitamin D3 pill that sells for less than $10 for 100 pills on Amazon. Again, the cost/benefit ratio on this is incredible.
Again, I’m not a doctor. I’m just a guy that started taking his health much more seriously a decade ago and was incredibly disappointed to see how I had been misled by the people I had entrusted with my health previously. There are simple solutions to a lot of the problems that we face as a society today that people aren’t being told like eat single ingredient foods, don’t be afraid of meat or eggs, don’t be afraid of the sun and don’t be afraid to take supplements to solve and prevent problems.
What do you think? I’d love to know in the comments below!
