Vitamin D vs Prostate Cancer

So, how do you like your vitamin D?  High or low?  Or perhaps you're not quite convinced.  I don't blame you.  We still don't have any good randomized controlled trials demonstrating cause & effect.  All we have are epidemiologic studies demonstrating association.  But it's a start right?  And at least most of the studies trend towards some benefit, if any, rather than harm.

Along those lines, a rather convoluted prospective case-control analysis of the Health Professions Follow-Up Study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute just yesterday concluding that the highest quartile (top 25%) of vitamin D was associated w/57% lower risk of deadly prostate cancer compared to lowest quartile (bottom 25%).  Granted their conclusion was a bit more detailed than that.  After all, when you compare 1,260 men w/prostate cancer to 1,331 controls over several years, it's tricky to run through all the statistics.  And this study actually looked into genetics, too, specifically single-nucleotide polymorphisms which are beyond the testing available to you & me.

Granted, we can't conclude cause & effect from this or any other epidemiologic study, but given the relative lack of harm from a reasonable supplement of vitamin D (and given its known & proven benefit vis a vis bone health), I'm willing to take my 2,000 units daily.  Now if I could only figure out a good scheme at the tables . . .

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