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melanoma risk may be reduced with vitamin d: study

regularly taking even low levels of vitamin d may help prevent a potentially deadly form of skin cancer.

by dave yasvinski

apr 17 2023
read time 3 minute read
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can vitamin d supplements help protect against skin cancer?
recent studies have shown that taking vitamin d was associated with less aggressive versions of the skin cancer. getty
a study earlier this year found that people who take vitamin d supplements on a regular basis face a lower risk of developing a potentially fatal form of skin cancer.
vitamin d plays a vital role in human health by helping the body build strong bones and improve its resistance to certain diseases. it has been long linked to skin cancers but previous research investigating the relationship between the two has proven inconclusive and even contradictory.
according to researchers, this is because many of these studies have focused on serum levels of calcidiol — a metabolite of vitamin d — and their analyses do not account for how this serum is metabolized by the skin. different types of skin express different enzymes that can generate biologically active vitamin d metabolites or inactivate them altogether.
to avoid this problem, researchers tried a different approach. their study, which was published in the journal melanoma research, recruited 498 adult patients believed to have an increased risk of skin cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma and melanoma. dermatologists from the university of eastern finland analyzed the medical history and background information of these subjects before carefully analyzing their skin. they then divided them into three groups based on their likelihood of developing skin cancer: low risk, medium risk and high risk.

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it is estimated that one in eight canadians will develop basal cell cancer in their lifetime and one in 20 will experience squamous cell cancer.
non-melanoma skin cancer accounts for around 28 per cent of all new cancer diagnoses in the country, according to the public health agency of canada. getty

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they were also divided into three other groups based on how often they consumed oral vitamin d supplements: non-users, occasional users and regular users. an analysis of the serum calcidiol levels in half of the study’s subjects was found to align with self-reported use of the supplement.
researchers found that there were considerably fewer cases of melanoma in the group that regularly consumed vitamin d compared to non-users, and that regular users were more likely to be classified into a group that was deemed less at risk for the disease. using logistical regression analysis, the team found that subjects that regularly consumed vitamin d had their risk of melanoma more than cut in half compared to non-users.
although the study was cross-sectional and the team was unable to prove a causal relationship, the results suggest that consuming using even low levels of vitamin d may decrease the risk of melanoma relative to non-users. they found no statistically significant relationship between vitamin d supplements and basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.
according to researchers, the findings align with recent studies that have shown the benefits of vitamin d in relation to melanoma, including one that concluded using the supplement was associated with less aggressive versions of the skin cancer.
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“these earlier studies back our new findings from the north savo region here in finland,” said ilkka harvima, a professor of dermatology and allergology at the university of eastern finland. “however, the question about the optimal dose of oral vitamin d in order to for it to have beneficial effects remains to be answered. until we know more, national intake recommendations should be followed.”
for canadians, public health guidelines recommend that people between the ages of nine and 70 take 600 iu of the supplement daily and no more than 4,000 iu per day.

melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, is diagnosed in around 9,000 canadians every year,   according to the canadian cancer society . the disease, which originates in the skin’s melanocyte cells, can lead to cancerous tumours capable of destroying surrounding tissue and spreading to other parts of the body.

roughly 1,300 canadians die from the disease every year, with the majority of diagnoses and deaths occurring in men, most likely because melanomas tend to develop on the extremities of women, as opposed to the trunk, head or neck of men. in canada, the five-year net survival rate for melanoma skin cancer is 88 per cent.

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dave yasvinski is a writer with  healthing.ca

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