The Effect of Vitamin D on Cancer Incidence and Survival

[Islander]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, July 15, 2019
William B. Grant

(OMNS July 15, 2019) The results of a phase 2 randomized controlled trial (RCT) of high- vs. low-dose vitamin D3 supplementation for 139 patients with advanced colorectal cancer taking chemotherapy was recently reported in JAMA [Ng et al., 2019]. The high-dose vitamin D treatment was 8000 IU/d vitamin D3 for two weeks, then 4000 IU/d thereafter. The low-dose treatment group received 400 IU/d vitamin D3. The length of time before the disease worsened was 13 months in the high-dose treatment group and 11 months in the low-dose group. Further, high-dose vitamin D3 supplementation significantly reduced the risk of death by 36% (P = 0.02). In secondary analyses, the length of time before the disease worsened was significantly longer for patients in the treatment group who maintained a healthy weight, or had more metastatic sites.
The rate of diarrhea was 12% in the low-dose group, but only 1% in the high-dose group. This finding is consistent with the role of vitamin D in maintenance of gut mucosal barrier integrity.

Keep reading: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#in...VmrtXTfRlbSPlh

[Islander]

My research over time holds that 8000 IU/d is a maintenance dose, not a high dose, whereas 400 IU is barely enough to avoid a serious deficiency. I speculate that at doses of 20,000 or even 30,000/day for the length of the study would have demonstrated even more encouraging results.

[Mr. Wizard]

No wonder that vitamin D3 supplementation helped to improve the condition of these cancer patients. Of importance to note: ****Vitamin D3 is a "hormone," not a vitamin. It was misnamed as a vitamin in 1969 and was never corrected. Almost every cell in the body has vitamin D receptors, which helps to explain how vit. D3 influences thousands of processes in the body. Chemotherapy drugs can cause damage to the liver, kidneys, and the colon. So, it is likely that the addition of vit. D3 supplementation for these patients was a major factor in diminishing the damage done by the chemotherapy drugs. **Finally, I was puzzled to see that although the high-dose patients received 20 times more vit. D3 than the low-dose patients, the high-dose patients only received 2 months more before their conditions worsened than the low-dose group. Seems really curious??

[StephenX]

My best friend has throat cancer. All his doctor is doing is cut, burn and poison. My friend wanted to find a doctor who would use D3, vitamin C megadoses and laetrile; but all his insurance would pay for is cut, poison and burn. There is no profit in natural cures for cancer. All the money is in never ending research and cut, burn and poison. American medicine is all about profit. Greed rules!

[Islander]

Nice to see you again, Stephen! Yup, in America the mantra is always "follow the money." There are naturopathic and other doctors who are willing to try alternative therapies, like IV vitamin C which has been shown to cure certain cancers. You might look over the sticky at the top of our Cancer forum to review some of the alternative approaches. I'm also going to ask Grulla how he found his naturopath in NM. Diet and nutrition are only the beginning. For instance, here in our Maine woods we can find chaga muushrooms if we know where to look.

[grulla]

Hello Stephen, my doctor in Las Cruces, NM, Dr Burton M. Berkson, (with son Arthur Berkson MD), is an integrative MD, with a PHD specializing in molecular biology, and practicing both conventional and alternative treatments. My Medicare management provider covers his conventional practices but the alternative parts are out-of-pocket. But regardless, one has to pay ALL the charges when leaving his clinic, up front, as he does not charge directly to the insurance providers. What he does do in that regard is to submit a special form for the insurance company provider to mail you a refund check for those medical aspects covered by medical insurance.

Also, it can take a couple month for acceptance to the Integrative Medical Center, so the sooner one applies, the sooner one can/might get accepted. Dr. Mercola interviewed Dr Berkson on about 4 separate occasions between 2009 to 2013 that one can research on Mecola's search engine magnifying glass icon.

Also, there is a global map hanging in the clinic hallway with colored pins showing where all Dr. Berksons' patients come from around the world. Some patients are able to stay at a motel or RV park a week at a time at, say as a possible example, every 3-6 months, rather that trying to make weekly visits. And he provides ALA and Vit C IVs with a staff of RNs, among many other treatments. http://drberkson.com/

[Islander]

But Grulla, how did you find him? Did a friend refer you? Is there some kind of directory of docs with these qualifications?

[grulla]

I first heard about Dr. Berkson, (IMC) through word-of-mouth appx. 8-9 years ago. In more recent years, Mercola forum member "rubylaverne" had been touting Dr. Berkson as being his patient.

[Mr. Wizard]

Naturopath docs are often certified as "Functional Medicine" docs too. You can locate both here:

Naturopaths by state: https://naturopathic.org/search/custom.asp?id=5613

Functional Medicine docs by state: https://www.ifm.org/find-a-practitioner/

[Islander]

Mr. Wizard, that information is so useful that I'm going to hang it as a sticky in the Natural Remedies forum. Thank you for posting it!

[Mr. Wizard]

Thanks for moving it to Natural Remedies forum. I found my Naturopath using this tool. Hope it will benefit others.

[grulla]

This search tool for integrative doctors just now arrived in my email from ANH:
https://integrativepractitionersearch.com/