By increasing people's direct exposure to sunshine and consumption of vitamin D, six hundred thousand deaths from breast and bowel cancer could be prevented each year - particularly in countries some way north or south of the equator.

This astonishing claim was made by researchers after comparing ...

• satellite measurements of sunshine and cloud cover
• average blood serum levels of vitamin D3
• breast and bowel cancer rates

… in fifteen countries. The results of the comparison were then applied to 177 countries worldwide.

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The protective effect of vitamin D3 began at levels ranging from 24 to 32 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) concentration in the blood serum. In Northern climes even the D3 blood serum levels of people who have good direct exposure to sunlight between May and September tend to be below this range by March and April the following year.

Said lead researcher Cedric Garland: "This could be best achieved with a combination of diet, supplements and short intervals (10-15 minutes a day) in the sun with at least 40% of the skin exposed." They suggested that a daily 2,000iu D3 supplement would also be needed during the winter months for a meaningful reduction in colorectal or breast cancer.

The researchers advised caution for individual with a history of skin cancer or a photosensitivity disease. Cedric also recommends the use of clothing and a hat when in the sun longer than 15 minutes.

This work builds on previous studies bythe same team (Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular, Feb 2007), which found that raising D3 serum levels to 55 ng/mL was optimal for cancer prevention.

The study was co-authored by Cedric F. Garland, Dr. P.H., Sharif B. Mohr, M.P.H., Edward D. Gorham, M.P.H., Ph.D., and Frank C. Garland, Ph.D., of the Division of Epidemiology at the UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and Moores UCSD Cancer Center; and William B. Grant, Ph.D., of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center, San Francisco.

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