Endometrial cancer is diagnosed in women between the ages of 55 and 65. It is the most frequently occurring cancer in the female genital tract in the United States with 35,000 cases reported every year.
Obesity is one among the bunch of risk factors associated with this cancer. It increases the risk by two times and chances of recurrence by six times. In 70-75 percent cases, the symptoms are diagnosed in stage 1 itself. It is followed by surgery which is the primary treatment for this ailment.
Researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that intake of Vitamin D supplements can reduce the risk of this cancer in obese women. The results of their study are published in the September 2010 issue of the online journal Cancer Prevention Research. It was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Defense.
How Endometrial Cancer Risk is Reduced by Vitamin D ?
- The experiment was carried out on experimental obese mice in the laboratory.
- Feeding Vitamin D diet to obese mice reduced the risk of this cancer by 25 percent.
- When these mice were not fed with this diet, the risk increased by 67 percent.
- No protective effect of Vitamin D diet was seen in normal mice against this cancer with risk chances as high as 60 percent.
- After this study, the researchers are convinced that vitamin D is effective against obesity-induced form of this cancer.
- The exact mechanism of how vitamin D is so beneficial against this cancer in obese women is yet to be understood and is the topic of further research.
More than 50 percent of women in America are overweight or obese and depend on progesterone drug to prevent endometrial cancer. Progesterone is also notorious for its breast cancer causing side effect.
Sunlight is a natural source of vitamin D. It is for this particular reason that the researchers believe exposure to sunlight on a daily basis can prove beneficial for obese women.
