Vitamin D3 an under-reported resource in preventing cancers
Honest HealthOct 19, 2009
He really looks like Santa Claus.
Who cares if he doesn't have a beard, white hair, a single reindeer or a red jump suit? Dr. Cedric Garland has a belly full of jelly and the kindest smile alive; and instead of packing a bag of toys, this world-renowned epidemiologist has collected new data that I believe is about to save hundreds of thousands of lives.
Garland's most recent research, published last spring in the Annals of Epidemiology, shows how enough vitamin D3 in our blood can block most breast cancers and most colorectal cancer from ever getting started. His research also predicts we can soon expect to see 50,000 fewer cases of invasive breast cancer and 50,000 fewer cases of colorectal cancer in the U.S. and Canada each year. This same amount of vitamin D can also halt 75 percent of deaths now caused by these diseases.
So, Merry Christmas a few months early!
Garland, senior staff member of the Moores Cancer Center UCSD and adjunct professor of family and preventative medicine at the University of California-San Diego's medical school, is also willing to hand out a practical recommendation to everyone: Just take 2,000 IU or more of vitamin D3 a day or get enough daily sun exposure to keep your vitamin D3 blood serum levels up to 60 ng/ml. (Heavy smokers and very heavy drinkers, however, are apparently still susceptible to these two cancers, even with 60ng/ml vitamin D3 blood levels.)
Garland's research is truly dynamite — spelled DINOMIT. After decades of research on vitamin D, this modern-day Santa Claus has crafted a new and expanded theory of how these cancers get started in the first place. The D or first step in this DINOMIT theory stands for decoupling or unhinging of breast or colorectal cells, when they lose their ability to communicate with one another. The I stands for initiation of cancer, the N for natural selection of the fastest reproducing cancer cells and the O for overgrowth, etc.
In other words, with sufficient vitamin D3 levels in our blood, our breast or colon cells stay clumped or hinged together. But once we let our D3 levels drop below the 60 ng./ml level, cells lose their stickiness and can't stay securely hinged together. It is apparently single or unhinged cells that can become irritated with too much chemical or natural estrogen or too much radiation, etc that can cause the trouble and initiate the cancer.
So the moral of this new research is: Do not let your cells become unhinged.
Still, not everyone seems excited about Dr. Garland's DINOMIT theory or his magic 60 ng/ml blood level goal. After all, once most people begin taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily, profits from breast cancer and colorectal cancer treatment will be cut in half. Soon, breast cancer and colorectal screening revenues will also plummet. This 2,000 IUs of Vitamin D3 cure will create an economic disaster for our for-profit drug and treatment "cancer-care" vendors.
Is this the reason why the two largest nonprofit sponsors of National Breast Cancer Month are staying mum about this new Vitamin D prevention research published six months ago?
When I checked the American Cancer Society's and Susan G. Komen Foundation's Web sites earlier this week, (both organizations receive tens of millions of dollars each year from pharmaceutical and radiology companies), I found nothing about the DINOMIT model nor anything about taking 2,000IUs of vitamin D3. Instead, both Web sites continue to discuss outdated vitamin D3 studies that used lower levels of vitamin D supplementation with inconclusive results.
So the moral of this story is: Ignore the pink ribbons and do your own research; then find a primary care practitioner who insists on checking your vitamin D3 blood levels and recommends you keep those levels at 60 ng/ml.
The life you save could be your own.
Susan Wadia-Ells, PhD, is founding director of, Know Breast Cancer. www.knowbreastcancer.net, a national non profit organization. She also writes the blog www.thetruthaboutbreastcancer.com. Wadia-Ells, a resident of Manchester by the Sea, and longtime wellness advocate, holds graduate degrees in political economy and women's studies.