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WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU READERS' BROADCAST - E-news broadcast. 220 - 5 January
2006

VITAMIN D AND CANCER: It works, but way above the RDA

The news that high doses of vitamin D can halve the risk of developing some cancers may well have
had a poor reception in Brussels. The EU bureaucrats are deciding on the potency of vitamins that will
be freely available in shops throughout Europe - and the new cancer study shows that therapeutic
levels need to be far higher than the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA).
The University of California research team has found that vitamin D3 - which is available as a
supplement - has a protective effect only at levels of 1000 IUs (international units) a day. The UK
government's recommended safe upper limit dose is just 400 IUs, whereas in the USA it's set at 2000
IUs.
The study team researched studies that had been published between 1966 and 2004 on cancer and
vitamin D, and concluded that thousands of lives could be saved if people had sufficient bodily stores
of vitamin D. Scientists reckon that around one in 10 people in the West are deficient in the vitamin.
It is most readily available from the sun itself, but scientists are concerned that over-exposure can lead
to skin cancer. Instead, they recommend that people get the vitamin from supplements and from food
such as egg yolk, fish oil and liver.
The study highlights the divide between those who take supplements at the RDA levels, and the
minority who take them at the far higher therapeutic levels. The study is a belated, but welcome, blow
for the minority. Let's hope that the EU bureaucrats take heed.
(Source: American Journal of Public Health, published online, December 27, 2005)

AMD: High-dose vitamins also help keep your sight

Further evidence that high doses of vitamins can have a therapeutic effect comes from a new study into
age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease of the retina that can lead to near blindness.
Researchers found that regular high doses of the antioxidants - vitamins C and E, beta carotene and
zinc - 'substantially' reduced the risk of developing the problem.
AMD affects around 11 per cent of people aged 80 years and older, and it's expected to escalate by 50
per cent over the next 20 years. The AMD sufferer can lose the ability to read, recognize faces, drive, or
move freely.
Medicine is at a loss as to how to treat the disease, but understands that it seems to be related to a
lack of oxygen as the retina is made up of oxygen, polyunsaturated fatty acids and photosensitizers.
Not surprisingly, earlier studies into the antioxidants found that supplements resulted in a 25 per cent
reduction in the progress of the disease, even in its late stages. The supplements used, however,
contained between three and 13 times the recommended daily allowance (RDA).
The new study, prepared by the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, confirmed the earlier findings.
In a study of 5,836 people at risk from developing AMD, the researchers found that the combination of
vitamins C and E, beta carotene and zinc resulted in a 35 per cent reduction in risk.
(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005; 294: 3101-7).

HEART DISEASE: It's all in the genes

If you want to know if you're likely to develop cardiovascular disease, just look at your immediate family
around you. Researchers have discovered that children of parents who had the disease are twice as
likely themselves of developing it.
Now a new study has found that your brothers and sisters are another indicator. If they have the
disease, your own risk of developing it increases dramatically.
In a study of 2,475 participants, researchers found that those who had siblings with the disease were
twice as likely themselves of developing it - the same risk factor as parents with the disease.
(Source: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2005; 294: 3117-23).

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