I love it when people pretend to do black people favors, by making them honorary white people. As if trust is not already a big enough issue between the races, the National Cancer Institute (NIC) has recently updated its cancer risk calculator to better measure the risk of breast cancer in black women – but not really. The calculator now more accurately tells black women that more of them will die. That’s the good news. The problem is that it does not tell them why – that’s the honorary part I suppose.The reason to measure risk is to identify contributing factors, thereby giving potential victims greater control over prevention. But don’t expect fewer black women to die - 8,000 this year - from this disease. White doctors, with the help of black doctors, continue to ignore the single greatest potential factor in breast cancer – Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D researchers quietly project that at least half of those deaths could be prevented.
Oh sure, they say that black women have more ‘aggressive’ tumors. They say that black women seek treatment later in their progression, and are not as responsive to treatment regimens. Hell, there is a list of socio-economic attributes as long as my arm – education, income, wealth, weight, diet, you name it. But these are contributing factors to the disease, not directly causing or preventing it.
What we do know is that the immune system is the co-captain defense to cancer, behind self-regulation within the cell itself, and it needs Vitamin D in order to work properly. Like flipping a light switch, proper serum D levels allow the immune system to walk up to a wayward cancer cell and abruptly switch it off – killing it. We also know that black women are deficient in Vitamin D in the biggest way.
So Black women out there, do not be fooled. Sure, play the NIC game on their calculator, but know this, the melanin in your skin is blocking the production of a vital hormone that you need to fight breast cancer. You need a Vitamin D (D3) supplement, as do your kids, husbands, brothers, and fathers. 2,000 IU's per day is a good start.
Get Vitamin D and live.
James C. Collier
READ MORE ACTING WHITE...
Technorati Tags: Acting White: WARNING! Cancer Institute Updates Risk Calculator, Breast Cancer, Vitamin D, Immune System, Hormones, Acting White
Vitamin D Appears to Cut Breast and Colorectal Cancer Risk This is the name of a MEDSCAPE paper that details just how much Vitamin D3 is needed to raise status sufficiently to give maximum protection.
ReplyDeleteVery often the kind of Vitamin D provided in multivitamin tablets is D2 Ergocalciferol and this form is not very effective. So do check your vitamin D is D3 Cholecalciferol.
Each 400iu/daily of D3 raises your vitamin d level by 9nmol/l 3.6ng/ml
In the Winter people drop down to below 40nmol/l - 16ng/ml
Idealy you need to be around 52ng/ml-130nmol/l to achieve lowest Breast cancer incidence.
This is why the amounts suggested in the Medscape paper are needed.
The research paper
Risk Assessment Vitamin D explains the safety of up to 10,000iu/daily.
Great post!!!! I am going to link it to my blog. hope its okay! thanks !!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! In my own little world i'm trying to spread the vitamin D story.
ReplyDeleteVitamin D deficiency is rampant since we got scared out of the sun by the AMA and dermatologists. (and yet the melanoma rate continues to rise...something is wrong here).
Vitamin D deficiency is worse in Blacks. And it also is connected to many other diseases: hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome...
check out the Vitamin D Council for more info.