Study: Advancing vitamin D increases the risk of developing cancer

The nutrients produced by the body under the sun's rays encourages bacteria that combat intestine tumors, researchers found.

Professor Caetano Reis and Sosa of the Francis Crick Institute suggested that this may mean that people with disabilities can be given new treatments in the future, writes The Sun, broadcast Schneta newspaper.

What we've shown here came as a surprise... A vitamin D can fix utero microbioma to favor a type of bacteria that gives mice better immunity to cancer”, he said.

This may one day be important for treating cancer in people, but we don't know how and why vitamin D has this effect through microbiotics. It takes more work before we can finally say that the correction of vitamin D has benefits for prevention or treatment of cancer”, he said.

Vitamin D is produced mainly in the body after coming into contact with the sun's rays, but levels may also increase by eating food as eggs, oilfish, and red meat.

Earlier research has shown that vitamin D helps the body absorb and sustain calcium, which is necessary for bone building, and also helps control infections and reduce inflammation.

The latest study, published in Science, saw how levels of nutrients affected immunity to cancer.

Researchers analyzed data from 1.5 million people in Denmark, which showed that there was a connection between lower levels of vitamin D and a higher risk of cancer.

A special analysis showed that patients with cancer with higher levels of vitamin D were more likely to respond well to immunity-based treatments.

To further their investigation, researchers gave a group of mice a diet rich in vitamin D, revealing that they had better immune resistance to experimentally transplanted cancers.

They found that vitamin D works on epithelial cells in the intestines, which in turn increase the amount of a bacteria called Bacterodes fragilis.

This microbe gave mice better immunity from cancer because transplanted tumors did not grow that much, but researchers are not yet sure how.

Dr Nisharnth Duggan said: “We know that lack of vitamin D can cause health problems, however, there is not enough evidence to link vitamin D levels with cancer risk.

This research of the early stage in mice, accompanied by a analysis of Danish population data, seeks to address the evidence gap. While the findings suggest a possible link between vitamin D and immune responses to cancer, further research is needed to confirm this”, Duggan says.

“Pac ray sun can help our bodies produce vitamin D, but you don't need sunbaths to stimulate this process. Most people in the UK can produce enough vitamin D by spending short periods of time in the summer sun. We can also get vitamin D from our diet and supplements”, she adds.

“We know that safety in the sun can reduce the risk of cancer, so make sure to seek shade, cover and apply sunscreen when the sun is strong”, Duggan concluded.