Sunlight can treat breast cancer, prostate cancer and other cancers

Taking a daily 10 to 15 minute walk in the sun not only clears your head, relieves stress and increases circulation – it could also cut your risk of breast cancer in half. At least that’s what Esther John, an epidemiologist at the Northern California Cancer Center, recommends. And there’s plenty of proof to back her up. One study found that sunlight exposure lowered the risk of breast cancer by 30 to 40 percent. In The Breast Cancer Prevention Diet, Dr. Robert Arnot claims that national rates of breast cancer inversely correlate to solar radiation exposure. In other words, breast cancer occurs at a much higher rate in colder, cloudier northern regions than in sunnier southern regions. Johns Hopkins University Medical School conducted a ten-year epidemiological study that showed exposure to full-spectrum light (including the ultraviolet frequencies) is positively related to the prevention of breast, colon and rectal cancers.

How does this work? There is in fact a scientific answer. The sun stimulates production of a hormone in your skin. Ultraviolet B rays, the kind of rays that give you sunburns, interact with a special cholesterol in unblocked skin. Once stimulated, this cholesterol triggers your liver and kidney to make vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 isn’t exactly a vitamin, but rather a type of steroid hormone that can drastically improve your immune system function.

Vitamin D3 also controls cellular growth and helps you absorb calcium from your digestive tract. Most importantly, this hormone/vitamin inhibits the growth of cancer cells. In laboratory tests performed on animals, vitamin D3 inhibited the growth of malignant melanoma, breast cancer, leukemia and mammary tumors. Vitamin D3 also slowed down angiogenesis, which aids the growth of cancer cells. Vitamin D3 stops cancer-aiding blood vessels from being formed, curbing the tumor’s ability to spread and disrupt other functions in the body. Donald R. Yance Jr. writes that vitamin D3 may also inhibit the activity of hormones such as estrogen in breast cancer, thereby decreasing its spread.

Since high doses of vitamin D3 are toxic, scientists have formulated vitamin D derivatives that can be administered to breast cancer patients. In tests, these derivatives have stopped the proliferation of breast cancer cells and sometimes have actually decreased the size of experimental mammary tumors. Further findings like these might point to yet another undiscovered function of vitamin D3: regulating the expression of protein products that prevent and even inhibit breast cancer.

There is a concern relevant to this issue. Haven’t we been told for the last 10 years to stay out of the sun? What about skin cancer? Dr. Richard Hobday, author of The Healing Sun, says our fear of the sun does more harm than good. Most recommended daily sunscreens block ultraviolet B rays, the same rays that trigger the production of vitamin D. The number of people who die from breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis — all maladies that sunlight could benefit — is far greater than the number of deaths from skin cancer. After reviewing 50 years of medical literature on cancer, Dr. Gordon Ainsleigh concluded that the benefits of regular sun exposure outweigh the risks of squamous-basal skin cancer, accelerated ageing and melanoma.

Despite the obvious advantages, most Americans are not getting enough vitamin D. Massachusetts General Hospital recently found that 59 percent of hospitalized patients had too little vitamin D in their bloodstream. Many experts infer that the Massachusetts vitamin D deficiency is almost as widespread in the general American population. Evidence also suggests that people with heavily pigmented skin (darker skin color) require more sunlight for adequate vitamin D production.

Given the obvious need for vitamin D, many researchers are looking for other sources for providing it to patients. While sunlight is the best naturally occurring source of vitamin D3 for humans, there are alternatives to a leisurely walk in the sun. Sheldon Saul Hendler, MD, PhD, describes an interesting paradox: While people living in Japan are exposed to relatively low levels of sunlight, the incidence of cancer among Japanese is very low. Hendler claims that the resistance to cancer apparent among the Japanese is explained by their diet, which includes large quantities of fatty fish that are rich in vitamin D.

Other sources of vitamin D include salmon, tuna, fish oils and vitamin D supplements. If you plan on drinking vitamin D fortified milk, however, be warned: Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine found the labels misleading. 80 percent of milk samples contained either 20 percent less or 20 percent more vitamin D than the amount advertised on labels. Too much vitamin D can be toxic and cause calcification in the kidneys and heart. So watch for the warning signs: anorexia, disorientation, dehydration, fatigue, weight loss, weakness and vomiting.

The experts speak on sunlight and breast cancer

The annual death rate from breast cancer varies considerably from region to region, practically doubling from the US South and Southwest to the high-risk Northeast. In addition, the risk of fatal breast cancer in the major cities is “inversely proportional to intensity of local sunlight.” It increased in low sunlight areas and decreased in sunnier climes. Vitamin D, created in the course of exposure to sunlight, is thus associated with a low risk of fatal breast cancer. The Garlands concluded that differences in the amount of ultraviolet light reaching the population may account for the striking regional differences in breast cancer deaths. The same was true in the Soviet Union.

Cancer: A ten-year epidemiological study conducted at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, in Baltimore, Maryland, showed that exposure to full-spectrum light (including the ultraviolet frequency) is positively related to the prevention of breast, colon, and rectal cancers. Another report found that exposure to full-spectrum sunlight reduced the risk of developing breast cancer. In Russia, a full-spectrum lighting system was installed in factories where colds and sore throats had become commonplace among workers. This lowered the bacterial contamination of the air by 40%-70%. Workers who did not receive the full-spectrum light were absent twice as many days as those who did.