Women who stay out of the sun are increasing their risk of developing breast cancer, a new study suggests. The safe-tanning messages that are drummed into women each year may help to reduce their risk of skin cancer – but at the cost of increasing their risk of breast cancer. The majority of vitamin D comes from exposure of the skin to sunlight but many women – exposed less in winter and reluctant to bare themselves in summer because of the dangers – are deficient. There has been anecdotal evidence to suggest that breast cancer is less common among women who live closer to the Equator, where sunshine is stronger. However, a new study provides evidence that the lower the levels of vitamin D in a woman’s blood-stream, the greater the risk of her developing breast cancer if she has passed menopause. Of more than 1,000 women who took part in a trial, those who were given both calcium and vitamin D supplements had less than half the chance of developing breast cancer than those given a placebo (13 cases among 446 women compared with 20 cases among 288 women.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Sunlight May Decrease Breast Cancer Risk
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS Every week 730 new breast cancers are diagnosed and 250 women die from breast cancer. Each year 38,000 women are newly diagnosed and 13,100 women die from breast cancer. Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in minority ethnic groups in the UK. Breast cancer now affects one woman in 9 during her lifetime in the United Kingdom. Survival rates are improving, on average 74 per cent of women are still alive five years later
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