Vitamin D, come meet my colon! And Supplement Skeptics.... well....you too!

[Guest guest]

Now you can add one more reason to take your VITAMIN D! Here's a really good

scientific study showing how both supplemental CALCIUM and D demonstrably

improve the rate of APOPTOSIS (the body's ability to destroy old, toxic cells

(or cancer cells) before they develop into deadly cancers). And.... one more

reason all those people telling me I don't need to take supplements should go

bother somebody else!

Will Winter

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TITLE: _Effects of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on markers of

apoptosis in normal colon mucosa: a randomized, double-blind,

placebo-controlled clinical trial._

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=PubMed & dopt=Abstr\

act & list_uids=19258546)

AUTHORS: Veronika Fedirko, Roberd M Bostick, W Dana Flanders, Qi Long,

Aasma Shaukat, Robin E Rutherford, R , Vaunita Cohen, Chiranjeev

Dash

AFFILIATION: Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health,

Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.

REFERENCE: Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa) 2009 Mar 2(3):213-23

To further clarify and/or develop calcium and vitamin D as chemopreventive

agents against colorectal cancer in humans, understand the mechanisms by

which these agents reduce risk for the disease, and develop " treatable "

biomarkers of risk for colorectal cancer, we conducted a pilot, randomized,

double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 x 2 factorial clinical trial to test the

effects of calcium and vitamin D3, alone and in combination on markers of

apoptosis, in the normal colorectal mucosa. Ninety-two men and women with at

least one pathology- confirmed colorectal adenoma were treated with 2.0 g/d

calcium or 800 IU /d vitamin D3, alone or in combination, versus placebo

over 6 months. Overall expression and colorectal crypt distributions of

Bcl-2 (an apoptosis inhibitor) and Bax (an apoptosis promoter) in biopsies of

normal-appearing rectal mucosa were detected by automated

immunohistochemistry and quantified by image analysis. After 6 months of

treatment, Bax

expression along the full lengths of crypts increased 56 % (P = 0.02) in the

vitamin D group and 33% in both the calcium (P = 0. 31) and calcium plus

vitamin D (P = 0.36) groups relative to the placebo group. The vitamin D

treatment effect was more pronounced in the upper 40%, or differentiation zone,

of

crypts (80%; P = 0.01). There were no statistically significant treatment

effects on Bcl-2 expression. Overall , these preliminary results suggest

that calcium and vitamin D, individually or together, may enhance apoptosis

in the normal human colorectal epithelium, and the strongest treatment

effects may be vitamin D related and in the upper sections of the colorectal

crypts.