Green Tea antioxidants may cut the risk of colorectal cancer in half in consistent consumers

Vitamin D vital for cancer prevention


A growing body of scientists believes that most Americans and Europeans do not receive enough vitamin D, and according to this latest study and many others this could be putting them at significant risk of developing cancer.

Scientists at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska studied 1,179 healthy, postmenopausal women for 4 years. They found that those taking large amounts of vitamin D supplements slashed their risk of developing cancer by 60%. Lead researcher, Professor Joan Lappe, Ph. D., RN., who is well known for her numerous published studies on women?s health, osteoporosis, and fractures, says ?The findings are very exciting?, ?Vitamin D is a critical tool in fighting cancer as well as many other diseases?.

The women who were all 55 years or older and free of known cancers for at least 10 years prior to entering the study, were randomly given 1,100 IU of vitamin D3 daily with Calcium supplementation at 1.400-1.500 mg. a day, a second group received calcium only, and the third group received inactive placebo. Over the four-year trial women on Calcium with Vitamin D experienced a 60 % drop in the risk of developing cancer. The researchers then subtracted the first year of the study because women may have joined with an existing but yet undiagnosed cancer and the group supplemented with both Vitamin D and Calcium had an incredible drop of 77 percent in their risk of developing cancer. The study is published in the June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Scientists from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Shanghai Cancer Institute, and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda examined the link between green tea intake over a six-year period and the risk of cancers of the colon or rectum in 69,710 Chinese women between the ages of 40 to 70. At the start of the study regularly drinking green tea was associated with a 37% reduction in cancer risk at these sites vs. irregular tea consumption. Over the six-year period it was found that if you regularly drank green tea you had a 57% decreased risk of developing cancer in the colon or rectum compared to people who drank tea inconsistently. The study is published in the June 1, 2007 issue of Cancer Biomarkers Epidemiology and Prevention.