----- Original Message -----
From: "Moe Webster" <moe9@...>
To: <w_v@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 4:22 AM
Subject: [W_V] Scientists Say Sunshine May Prevent Cancer


>
> Scientists Say Sunshine May Prevent Cancer
>
> May 21, 1:15 PM (ET)
>
> By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
>
>
> Scientists are excited about a vitamin again. But unlike fads that sizzled
> and fizzled, the evidence this time is strong and keeps growing. If it
> bears out, it will challenge one of medicine's most fundamental beliefs:
> that people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they're in the
> sun. Doing that may actually contribute to far more cancer deaths than it
> prevents, some researchers think.
>
> The vitamin is D, nicknamed the "sunshine vitamin" because the skin makes
> it from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but
> dermatologists and health agencies have long preached that such lotions
are
> needed to prevent skin cancer. Now some scientists are questioning that
> advice. The reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for
> preventing and even treating many types of cancer.
>
> In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped
> protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and,
ironically,
> the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.
>
> Many people aren't getting enough vitamin D. It's hard to do from food and
> fortified milk alone, and supplements are problematic.
>
>
> (AP) Dr. Michael Holick, Ph.D., of Boston University, poses in a tanning
> bed at the Boston Medical...
> Full Image
> So the thinking is this: Even if too much sun leads to skin cancer, which
> is rarely deadly, too little sun may be worse.
>
> No one is suggesting that people fry on a beach. But many scientists
> believe that "safe sun" - 15 minutes or so a few times a week without
> sunscreen - is not only possible but helpful to health.
>
> One is Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a Harvard University professor of medicine
> and nutrition who laid out his case in a keynote lecture at a recent
> American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
>
> His research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each
> one caused by skin cancer.
>
> "I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any factor that
> has such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D," Giovannucci told
> the cancer scientists. "The data are really quite remarkable."
>
>
> (AP) Dr. Michael Holick, Ph.D., of Boston University, looks toward the sky
> while posing for a portrait...
> Full Image
> The talk so impressed the American Cancer Society's chief epidemiologist,
> Dr. Michael Thun, that the society is reviewing its sun protection
> guidelines. "There is now intriguing evidence that vitamin D may have a
> role in the prevention as well as treatment of certain cancers," Thun
said.
>
> Even some dermatologists may be coming around. "I find the evidence to be
> mounting and increasingly compelling," said Dr. Allan Halpern, dermatology
> chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who advises
> several cancer groups.
>
> The dilemma, he said, is a lack of consensus on how much vitamin D is
> needed or the best way to get it.
>
> No source is ideal. Even if sunshine were to be recommended, the amount
> needed would depend on the season, time of day, where a person lives, skin
> color and other factors. Thun and others worry that folks might overdo it.
>
> "People tend to go overboard with even a hint of encouragement to get more
> sun exposure," Thun said, adding that he'd prefer people get more of the
> nutrient from food or pills.
>
> But this is difficult. Vitamin D occurs naturally in salmon, tuna and
other
> oily fish, and is routinely added to milk. However, diet accounts for very
> little of the vitamin D circulating in blood, Giovannucci said.
>
> Supplements contain the nutrient, but most use an old form - D-2 - that is
> far less potent than the more desirable D-3. Multivitamins typically
> contain only small amounts of D-2 and include vitamin A, which offsets
many
> of D's benefits.
>
> As a result, pills might not raise vitamin D levels much at all.
>
> Government advisers can't even agree on an RDA, or recommended daily
> allowance for vitamin D. Instead, they say "adequate intake" is 200
> international units a day up to age 50, 400 IUs for ages 50 to 70, and 600
> IUs for people over 70.
>
> Many scientists think adults need 1,000 IUs a day. Giovannucci's research
> suggests 1,500 IUs might be needed to significantly curb cancer.
>
> How vitamin D may do this is still under study, but there are lots of
> reasons to think it can:
>
> _Several studies observing large groups of people found that those with
> higher vitamin D levels also had lower rates of cancer. For some of these
> studies, doctors had blood samples to measure vitamin D, making the
> findings particularly strong. Even so, these studies aren't the gold
> standard of medical research - a comparison over many years of a large
> group of people who were given the vitamin with a large group who didn't
> take it. In the past, the best research has deflated health claims
> involving other nutrients, including vitamin E and beta carotene.
>
> _Lab and animal studies show that vitamin D stifles abnormal cell growth,
> helps cells die when they are supposed to, and curbs formation of blood
> vessels that feed tumors.
>
> _Cancer is more common in the elderly, and the skin makes less vitamin D
as
> people age.
>
> _Blacks have higher rates of cancer than whites and more pigment in their
> skin, which prevents them from making much vitamin D.
>
> _Vitamin D gets trapped in fat, so obese people have lower blood levels of
> D. They also have higher rates of cancer.
>
> _Diabetics, too, are prone to cancer, and their damaged kidneys have
> trouble converting vitamin D into a form the body can use.
>
> _People in the northeastern United States and northerly regions of the
> globe like Scandinavia have higher cancer rates than those who get more
> sunshine year-round.
>
> During short winter days, the sun's rays come in at too oblique an angle
to
> spur the skin
>
> to make vitamin D. That is why nutrition experts think vitamin D-3
> supplements may be especially helpful during winter, and for dark-skinned
> people all the time.
>
> But too much of the pill variety can cause a dangerous buildup of calcium
> in the body. The government says 2,000 IUs is the upper daily limit for
> anyone over a year old.
>
> On the other hand, D from sunshine has no such limit. It's almost
> impossible to overdose when getting it this way. However, it is possible
to
> get skin cancer. And this is where the dermatology establishment and Dr.
> Michael Holick part company.
>
> Thirty years ago, Holick helped make the landmark discovery of how vitamin
> D works. Until last year, he was chief of endocrinology, nutrition and
> diabetes and a professor of dermatology at Boston University. Then he
> published a book, "The UV Advantage," urging people to get enough sunlight
> to make vitamin D.
>
> "I am advocating common sense," not prolonged sunbathing or tanning
salons,
> Holick said.
>
> Skin cancer is rarely fatal, he notes. The most deadly form, melanoma,
> accounts for only 7,770 of the 570,280 cancer deaths expected to occur in
> the United States this year.
>
> More than 1 million milder forms of skin cancer will occur, and these are
> the ones tied to chronic or prolonged suntanning.
>
> Repeated sunburns - especially in childhood and among redheads and very
> fair-skinned people - have been linked to melanoma, but there is no
> credible scientific evidence that moderate sun exposure causes it, Holick
> contends.
>
> "The problem has been that the American Academy of Dermatology has been
> unchallenged for 20 years," he says. "They have brainwashed the public at
> every level."
>
> The head of Holick's department, Dr. Barbara Gilchrest, called his book an
> embarrassment and stripped him of his dermatology professorship, although
> he kept his other posts.
>
> She also faulted his industry ties. Holick said the school has received
> $150,000 in grants from the Indoor Tanning Association for his research,
> far less than the consulting deals and grants that other scientists
> routinely take from drug companies.
>
> In fact, industry has spent money attacking him. One such statement from
> the Sun Safety Alliance, funded in part by Coppertone and drug store
> chains, declared that "sunning to prevent vitamin D deficiency is like
> smoking to combat anxiety."
>
> Earlier this month, the dermatology academy launched a "Don't Seek the
Sun"
> campaign calling any advice to get sun "irresponsible." It quoted Dr.
> Vincent DeLeo, a Columbia University dermatologist, as saying: "Under no
> circumstances should anyone be misled into thinking that natural sunlight
> or tanning beds are better sources of vitamin D than foods or nutritional
> supplements."
>
> That opinion is hardly unanimous, though, even among dermatologists.
>
> "The statement that 'no sun exposure is good' I don't think is correct
> anymore," said Dr. Henry Lim, chairman of dermatology at Henry Ford Health
> System in Detroit and an academy vice president.
>
> Some wonder if vitamin D may turn out to be like another vitamin, folate.
> High intake of it was once thought to be important mostly for pregnant
> women, to prevent birth defects. However, since food makers began adding
> extra folate to flour in 1998, heart disease, stroke, blood pressure,
colon
> cancer and osteoporosis have all fallen, suggesting the general public may
> have been folate-deficient after all.
>
> With vitamin D, "some people believe that it is a partial deficiency that
> increases the cancer risk," said Hector DeLuca, a University of
> Wisconsin-Madison biochemist who did landmark studies on the nutrient.
>
> About a dozen major studies are under way to test vitamin D's ability to
> ward off cancer, said Dr. Peter Greenwald, chief of cancer prevention for
> the National Cancer Institute. Several others are testing its potential to
> treat the disease. Two recent studies reported encouraging signs in
> prostate and lung cancer.
>
> As for sunshine, experts recommend moderation until more evidence is in
hand.
>
> "The skin can handle it, just like the liver can handle alcohol," said Dr.
> James Leyden,
>
> professor emeritus of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, who
> has consulted for sunscreen makers.
>
> "I like to have wine with dinner, but I don't think I should drink four
> bottles a day."
>
>
>
>
>
> "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change
something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." ~
Buckminster Fuller
>
>
> "You must be the change that you wish to see in the world" ~ Mahatma
Gandhi
>
> "We are shaped and fashioned by what we love"
> "What we nurture in ourselves will grow; that is nature's eternal law."
~Goethe
>
> "Experience is the best teacher, borrow someone else's notes"
>
> To subscribe from this group, send an email to:
> W_V-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
> To view links: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/W_V/links/
>
> To view files: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/W_V/files/
>
> NOTE: ANY MEMBER MAY SUBMIT URLS AND FILES TO THESE SECTIONS BY SENDING
AN EMAIL TO mailto:mosaicbymoe@....
>
>
> *************** IMPORTANT ANTI-SPAM NOTIFICATION***************
> If you are receiving this email erroneously please send a blank email to
W_V-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. The owners of this discussion list do not
endorse nor promote all the views or opinions expressed in this forum.
>
> In accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, any copyrighted work in the
messages from this list are distributed under fair use without profit or
payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
(http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml)
> *************** IMPORTANT ANTI-SPAM NOTIFICATION***************
>
> For more information on instant pain relief products, heavy metal
detoxification, and total energetic healing solutions using body soaks and
DNR products, all Web order get special automatic 20% discount, visit
http://www.dnrsite.com/store4.mv?AFFIL=3971042, or
mailto:mosaicbymoe@...
>
> At last! HEALTHY COFFEE, http://www.myganoexcel.biz/moewebster
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>