Inadequate levels of vitamin D may increase the risk for uterine fibroids, a new study reports.Vitamin D has been associated with reduced risk for various diseases (cancer included) but this is the first to examine the connection to fibroids.
Researchers randomly selected 620 black and 410 white women, ages 35 to 49, and determined their vitamin D levels with blood tests and their health status with questionnaires. Their analysis appears in the May issue of Epidemiology.
About two-thirds of the women had fibroid tumours. In the entire group, only 10 percent of the black women and 50 percent of white women had vitamin D levels above 20 nanograms per milliliter, generally considered an adequate level.
After adjusting for age, physical activity, sun exposure and other variables, they found that having a vitamin D level above 20 decreased the risk for fibroids by 32 percent, and that each increase of 10 nanograms per milliliter in vitamin D was associated with a 20 percent lower risk of having a fibroid tumour.
The lead author, Donna Day Baird, an epidemiologist with the National Institutes of Health, cautioned that this was only one epidemiological study and needed to be replicated. Still, she said ...'sufficient levels of vitamin D are probably good for several health outcomes and fibroids may be one of them'.
Whilst technically not a vitamin but rather a sun hormone vitamin D is an essential requirement by the body for the proper absorption of calcium, bone development, control of cell growth, neuromuscular functioning, proper immune functioning, and alleviation of inflammation.
Inflammation is one of the driving forces behind fibroid growth
Vitamin D is oil soluble, which means you need to eat fat to absorb it. It is naturally found mainly in fish oils, fatty fish (sardines, mackerel, wild salmon etc) and to a lesser extent in beef liver, cheese, egg yolks and certain mushrooms.
Vitamin D is also naturally made by your body when you expose your skin to the sun - hence it is often referred to as the sun-shine vitamin.
If you are interested in finding out to how to expose your skin safely in the sun then read this article (see link below), it contains a wealth of technical as well as interesting information - did you know that D3 that is formed on the surface of your skin does not immediately penetrate into your bloodstream? and that if you wash your skin with soap within that 48 hour window you you will simply wash away much of the vitamin D3 your skin has generated!
