Sunday, May 22, 2005
Why I Always Take Health Studies With A Grain...
This will make you fahoodled.
The vitamin is D, nicknamed the "sunshine vitamin" because the skin makes it from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but dermatologists and health agencies have long preached that such lotions are needed to prevent skin cancer. Now some scientists are questioning that advice. The reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for preventing and even treating many types of cancer.Medicine is an informed art -- it has a long way to go to make it into the realm of science. Continuous study and learning is the nature of the beast, but we have really got to be more careful before we go turning people's lives all around...
In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.
Many people aren't getting enough vitamin D. It's hard to do from food and fortified milk alone, and supplements are problematic.
