Vitamin D is an important vitamin for the body and is important for good bone health and helps the muscles, immune system and nervous system to function property. But this vitamin has many other health benefits and significance as well. The relationship and association between breast cancer and vitamin D has long been established.
Several studies and research work have proved that deficiency of vitamin D can be one of those many factors that may aggravate breast cancer and its symptoms. Moreover, those women who had high levels of vitamin D in their blood when they are diagnosed with breast cancer have a higher and almost double the chance of surviving when compared with those with relatively lower levels of this important Vitamin. For this reason, doctors are advised to maintain an adequate level of vitamin D levels in patients with breast cancer and also with those who do not have this disease.
Vitamin D levels must be checked regularly for everyone, especially women and especially in the winter season so that breast cancer can be prevented by increasing vitamin D levels in the blood. So what exactly does vitamin D do to prevent or treat breast cancer? Let’s find out.
Vitamin D Stops Tumor Growth
What Vitamin D does is that it makes the cells stick together. This is especially true in the case of breast epithelial cells. Vitamin D produces up regulation of the synthesis of E-Cadherin to make the cells stick together and does prevents the tumor from growing any further.
With a large amount of Vitamin D, the cells get self-adherent and do not evolve into a cancer. For those who already have a tumor, the vitamin can freeze the cancerous cells in their track. It is said that women should receive 1500 mg of calcium with vitamin D because this vitamin works well with sufficient quantities of calcium in the body.
Steps to Take
In order to prevent having low Vitamin D and thus high risk of breast cancer, you can do the following:
- Get sun exposure-even short periods of sun exposure-15 minutes 3 times a week can supply sufficient quantities of Vitamin D.
- Supplements-you can also consider taking Vitamin D supplements to maintain the adequate levels of this vitamin.
- Eat foods rich in these vitamin-including foods like salmon, catfish, sardines, milk and orange juice to your diet is also advisable.
