Jan 07
24
Vitamin D Good for Breast Health?
I was just listening to a new commercial for a women’s health vitamin by (I believe) One a Day multivitamins which contains vitamin D as a purported breast health supporter. I looked into whether Vitamin D is good for breast health, or if there is any anecdotal or hard evidence to back this claim up.Â
Let’s first talk a little bit about what vitamin D is best known for. Vitamin D has been otherwise known as the “sunshine vitamin”, the vitamin that us humans tend to get the most of from direct exposure to sunlight. That’s right, we actually absorb this through our skin and our body synthesizes it into usable vitamin D. It’s been thought to help ward off certain things like depression, because of the link to sunshine and depression.Â
Vitamin D is also commonly added to milk and other fortified cereals. Well, now new studies are suggesting that ingesting vitamin D in one’s diet may help a woman to ward off breast cancer too. Some of the studies performed have shown, or at least highly suggested that, vitamin D may help to reduce the likelihood a woman will develop breast cancer by up to 50%. That’s pretty darn good if you ask me.Â
The studies imply that women who have spent a lot of time outdoors and gotten lots of sunlight, or have ingested adequate amounts of vitamin D dietarily have a substantially lower risk of developing breast cancer later in life. Enough so that they say even a modestly low ingestion or intake of the vitamin can reduce your risk of breast cancer by ten percent (this is still pretty good if you ask me). The bottom line?Â
While studies like this are hard to find conclusive, I’d still say it’s better safe than sorry. Make sure you are getting adequate amounts of the sunshine vitamin, and it just may help you to reduce your likelihood of developing this scary cancer some day….I’d say that’s very worth it!
