Source: www.curetoday.com Author: Diana Steele Plain old vitamin D might finally be ready for its day in the sun. New research is shedding light on the leading role that this vitamin may play in preventing cancer and in keeping tumors in check. Vitamin D isn’t technically a vitamin, since it’s produced in the body as a result of exposure to sunlight (“vitamins” are essential to life but by definition can be obtained only outside the body, through diet or supplements). It’s only when we don’t get enough sun that our bodies don’t make enough vitamin D and we need to get it from other sources. But while one of those sources, milk, is fortified with enough vitamin D to prevent the bone disease rickets in children, dietary sources—even a multivitamin—don’t provide nearly enough D to help prevent cancer, many scientists now say. New findings are showing that vitamin D acts as a sentinel to help regulate cell growth and prevent a cell from becoming malignant, says Boston University Medical Center researcher Michael Holick, PhD, MD. “And that’s why we think that you need an adequate vitamin D level throughout your entire life, and that [anytime] you become vitamin D-deficient, you put yourself at increased risk of potentially developing a malignancy later in life, because you’ve lost the policing ability of vitamin D to help keep cell growth in check.” The prescription? Sensible sun exposure for your skin type, plus vitamin D supplements. The payback? Greatly reduced risk of colon, breast, [...]