A doctor has advised people to make one simple change to their daily lives in order to reduce their risk of cancer.
Researchers from the German Cancer Research Centre discovered that a daily dose of 'sunshine' vitamin D could cut cancer deaths by 12 per cent. It's common in cancer patients to see a lack of vitamin D.
The body creates the essential vitamin when it's exposed to sunlight, however, it can also be found in oily fish such as salmon as well as red meat, liver, and egg yolks. Dr Ben Schöttker, an epidemiologist at the Centre, discussed the findings from the research, the Liverpool Echo reports.
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"Based on current studies, vitamin D3 supplementation probably does not protect against developing cancer but it could reduce the likelihood of dying from cancer," he said. "However, previous studies on cancer mortality have yielded very different results, and we were interested in the reasons for this.
"By re-evaluating all previous studies on the topic, we wanted to help produce robust results on this issue, which is so relevant to population health." Researchers from the centre examined 14 separate studies involving 105,000 people.
In the study, around 15 per cent of people were deficient in vitamin D over a year. However, when examining colorectal cancer patients, they discovered that up to 59 per cent were lacking in the vitamin and were associated with a bad prognosis.
Researchers only considered studies of the highest quality which included participants that were randomly assigned to the vitamin D3 arm or the placebo arm. They found that a small daily dose of vitamin D at 400 to 4,000 IU per day was more effective than larger doses of 60,000 to 120,000 IU once per month or less.
Dr Schöttker added: "In the four studies with the infrequent higher doses, there was no effect on cancer mortality. In contrast, in the summary of the ten studies with daily dosing, the researchers determined a statistically significant 12 per cent reduction in cancer mortality."
"We observed this 12 per cent reduction in cancer mortality after untargeted vitamin D3 administration to individuals with and without vitamin D deficiency. We can therefore assume that the effect is significantly higher for those people who are actually vitamin D deficient."
Analysis of the studies also found that daily intake of vitamin D gave the most benefits to people aged 70 and older. Dr Schöttker believes low regular doses are more beneficial because the vitamin reacts with the body to produce a hormone that inhibits cancer growth.
Professor Hermann Brenner, an epidemiologist at the Center added: "This work underlines the great potential of vitamin D3 administration in the prevention of cancer deaths. Regular intake at low doses is associated with almost negligible risk and very low cost."
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