Nutritional Supplement Vitamin D May Prevent Bladder Cancer

Vitamin D is a popular nutritional supplement as it has the ability to positively impact lots of health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, autoimmune conditions, and certain cancers.Vitamin D is produced by the body through exposure to sunlight. This nutritional supplement is oil soluble, which means you need to eat fat to absorb it. Natural foods high in vitamin D include oily fish such as salmon, sardines, pilchards, trout, herring, kippers and eel. Other foods high in Vitamin D content include mushrooms, beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks. However, in countries which have low levels of sunlight many people are deficient in this key nutritional supplement of Vitamin D as it is difficult to obtain sufficient Vitamin D from food alone. In these countries, this deficiency is particularly prevalent in dark-skin people e.g. 75% of dark skin people are Vitamin D deficient.

Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer occurs when abnormal cells in the bladder grow and divide in an uncontrolled way. Bladder cancer is more prevalent in people over 55 years and the average age at which bladder cancer is diagnosed is 73 years. Men are around 3-4 times more likely to develop bladder cancer than women, and the chances getting bladder cancer in are 1 in 26 in men and 1 in 90 for women.

There are different types of bladder cancer:

• urothelial carcinoma
• squamous cell carcinoma
• adenocarcinoma

To add to its importance as a key nutritional supplement several studies presented at the recent meeting of Society of Endocrinology in Brighton, UK revealed that low levels of Vitamin D increase the risk of bladder cancer.

A word of caution

Most adults require no more than about 600 IU of vitamin D a day and older people need a daily intake of 800 IU. Unless your doctor has prescribed a higher dose to treat a deficiency you should avoid exceeding 4,000 IU daily as it can cause confusion, nausea, and weakness and ultimately kidney damage.

Not every individual requires Vitamin D as a nutritional supplement.The best way to find out if you need it is to have a blood test at your doctor’s clinic. It is also important to research to find the best Vitamin D nutritional supplement on the market and use the right daily dose for your condition. The effects of this supplement can be startling.