Nutrition Videos

Hi! I'm Stelios Pantazis. I'm a doctor and I specialize in medical nutrition and metabolic disorders. I'd like to talk about a study that has recently been published and gives a strong message that vitamin D protects us from aggressive cancers. In the study that was published a few months ago, and if you're brave enough, you can find its link below the video, it was proven that for people taking vitamin D daily in dietary supplements, the risk of advanced cancer reduced by 20%. This study is interesting for one more reason. This protection seemed to appear only in people with normal weight. Let's see the details. I think they're rather important. 25,000 men and women took part in the study. They were randomly divided into two groups. 2,000 units of vitamin D were administered daily to the first group and a placebo was administered to the second group. They were monitored for more than five years, during which it was proven that the people of the group taking vitamin D had a 20% decreased risk of suffering from aggressive cancer or dying from cancer. The unexpected fact of the study was that if we divide the participants into two groups, the participants with normal weight, namely a BMI up to 25, and those that had a BMI over 25, we'll find out that the protection provided by vitamin D against advanced cancer mainly concerns the participants with normal weight. For people with normal weight, the risk of suffering from advanced cancer or dying from cancer reduced by 38%. What impressed us was that for overweight and obese people, namely people with a BMI over 25, the protection was almost insignificant. This was a puzzle for researchers and the explanation proposed in the study is that overweight or obese people may need an even larger dose of vitamin D in order to be equally protected. Let me remind you that according to current directions, only 400-800 units of vitamin D per day are recommended. This amount is much smaller than the one that seemed to help the participants of the study. It should also be pointed out that the study didn't prove that the administration of vitamin D reduces the risk of being diagnosed with cancer. What was proven was the protection against advanced cancer, namely cancer that had already spread upon diagnosis, or against cancer that leads to death. The researchers attributed this to the fact that vitamin D affects the progress of cancer much more than the risk of its occurrence. Studies on animals have shown that vitamin D modifies cancer cells and makes them less aggressive and less threatening to health. This is consistent with earlier studies that had associated high levels of vitamin D in blood with longer survival in individuals suffering from cancer. Finally, let me say that the researchers point out in this study two very important things. The first one is that all of us should measure vitamin D regularly and make sure we're not deficient of it, especially people with a history of cancer in their family, for example if a parent, sibling or other close relative has suffered from it. They should be particularly careful with the vitamin D levels in their blood. They should measure it regularly and make sure, with a healthy diet and dietary supplements, that they have sufficiency of vitamin D all through the year. The second important comment of the researchers is that it's really important to pay attention to our weight. We should make sure that our weight is normal, because this way we'll be protected by vitamin D to the maximum degree. Overweight and obese people should not only make sure they have sufficient vitamin D in their blood, they should also make sure they have a normal weight, in order to be protected by the vitamin D contained in their body to the maximum degree. If you thought this was interesting, please give us a thumbs up. Share it with people who you think might find it interesting and subscribe to our channel in order to get notified when we upload a video. You can also suggest subjects in the comment section. Thank you very much!