Breast tissue produces its own vitamin D to fight off cancer, given half a chance. This, at least, is the intriguing implication of findings by scientists at Birmingham University and St. George‘s Hospital in London. Previously it was thought that the active form of vitamin D3 (calcitriol, a known potent anti-cancer agent) was only made in the kidney.

Further work is needed before the next implication can be confirmed, i.e. increasing women’s vitamin D3 levels could be used to both protect anf fight against breast cancer.

The scientists suggest that the rise in breast cancer rates in the UK may be linked to the fact that we have low levels of vitamin D3 in our bodies due to a combination of our indoors lifestyle and the low levels of sunshine in northern climes like the UK.

• Exposure to sunlight is the greatest source of vitamin D3
• People living in sunny climates spend less time behind glass
• The UK population generally eats insufficient quantities of foods rich in vitamin D3 like cod liver oil, oily fish like mackerel, trout and salmon, eggs and dairy products

The findings were presented to the 21st Joint Meeting of the British Endocrine Societies in April 2002.

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