With the growing number of cancer patients, researchers have been scrambling to find the cure. There have been wonderful breakthroughs made in science, and while they have shared their secrets, there is yet another vitamin that may stop cancer in its tracks and help reverse it.
In fact, these health experts that have done their research believe that vitamin D could be the secret to ovarian cancer prevention. This form of cancer is one of the most fatal because they discovered that it halted a specific and important transformation in its metastasis.
They also discovered how this integral vitamin was able to effectively reverse a process. This had stopped allowing the cancer to turn the person’s body defenses against them. Hence, this may play an important role in the treatment plan, particularly in its earliest stages.
When it develops inside the body, ovarian cancer goes through several processes, one of which is called peritoneal metastasis. This is when the cancer’s cells detach themselves from their primary site. They then begin to travel to a secondary site, the most common of which are the peritoneal wall and the diaphragm.
When this happens, the peritoneum starts the defense mechanism and builds a barrier made of mesothelial cells. This act prevents the cancer cells from sticking to the area as well as limits their spread. While this may sound like an ideal step, the ovarian cancer finds its way to fight this form of defense by transforming the protective mesothelial cells into cancer-linked mesothelial cells. What happens is an environment that promotes metastasis. In fact, the process even helps the spread of cancer in the host.
It’s exactly because of the reasons stated above that ovarian cancer has been called ‘a silent killer’ by the doctors because it often brings about a few distinct and signs symptoms that only become distinct in its advanced stages. Only around 9 out of 10 women with an early-stage diagnosis survive. If the cancer is spotted only in the latter stages, the numbers go up to 1 out of 10 surviving. The circumstances have been dire for many.
Because the researchers want to increase the chances of survival, researchers from Nagoya University School of Medicine, which was led by Dr. Masato Yoshihara found that vitamin D may be the key. Not only did this counteract and go against this process, it was also able to revert the cancer-associated mesothelial cells and bring them back to their original form. This process was able to fortify the barrier effect of mesothelial cells. More importantly, it was also able to lower its further spread.
“We showed the potential of vitamin D for normalizing cancer-associated mesothelial cells, which is the first study of this kind,” said Dr. Kazuhisa Kitami. He was actually the first author of the study. “This study’s most interesting point is that in situations where early detection of ovarian cancer is still extremely difficult, we showed that the peritoneal environment can be restored to its normal state where it prevents the adhesion and growth of cancer cells,” he added.
Vitamin D is also known as the sunshine vitamin. When it comes to cancer, it is able to do its task by interrupting the pathway for a tumor growth-factor protein that they call TGF-B1. It then produces changes in gene expression that specialize in peritoneal metastasis.
This is why women generally should seriously think about taking vitamin D as a supplement. If they get their hands on it, they should get the ones between 2,000 to 4,000 IUs. They can go lower only if they actually spend much of their time outdoors. Estimations have also been made and some have put as much as 42 percent of Americans deficient on vitamin D. It must be noted that the deficiency may depend on what the researcher has decided to use as the minimum range, which oftentimes differs from one study to the next.
If you looked deeper into recent work, you need to consider the optimal levels of vitamin D. This is ideal not just for cancer prevention, but it also is good and improving personal health and fitness. In reality, around half the American population needs to include vitamin D in their daily diet.
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