Benefits Of Vitamin A In Reducing Melanoma Risk

Promising findings on reducing melanoma risk have come from a new study that has found that one of the benefits of vitamin a supplements might be to offer protection against disfiguring, dangerous and sometimes deadly melanoma. Despite this, researchers are not suggesting you start taking vitamin A supplements, as this nutrient can be dangerous in high doses.

Vitamin A is found naturally in foods like carrots, eggs, milk, liver, spinach and sweet potatoes and plays a key role in our vision, bone health, reproduction, cell division and differentiation as well as helping to manage the immune system.

It's also known to help the skin and mucous membranes stay strong and keep out both bacteria and viruses. Surveys have found that most Americans get enough vitamin A in the diet, and deficiencies in this country are rare.

The researchers looking for a link between vitamin A and melanoma examined melanoma risk for 69,635 subjects who were 62 years old on average. After a period of six years, 566 had been diagnosed with melanoma.

For the 59,000 subjects who had never taken vitamin A supplements there were 506 melanomas, but for the 5,800 who were taking supplements and had used them regularly over the past decade, there were just 28 cases.

In fact, those who got additional vitamin A through supplements had almost a 40% less chance to be diagnosed with melanoma as those who didn't take such supplements.

The strange thing is, it was only the supplements that lowered the risk, not getting the nutrient from foods.

The reduced risk was more significant in women compared to men, and the protection was greatest in parts of the body that have frequent exposure to the rays of the sun. Women may benefit more than men because they are more susceptible to skin damage from UV radiation than men are.

The researchers are emphatic that the reduction in melanoma was associated with the supplements not the nutrient obtained from the diet. They know this because the protective benefits were only seen in those who were taking on board more vitamin A than can be found in commercially available multivitamin formulas.

And it was only the vitamin A, not carotenoids that brought the lower risk of melanoma. A carotenoid is a precursor (converted by the body as needed) to vitamin A - beta-carotene or lycopene may be names you know.

Other experts, not involved in the work, aren't surprised that vitamin A offers some protection against melanoma. The thing is, experts are quick to warn that the findings are preliminary and that excessive amounts vitamin A is a dangerous thing; it can bring serious risks such as birth defects, lower bone mineral density or liver toxicity, as well as troublesome symptoms like dry skin or hair loss.

The National Institutes of Health recommends a daily intake of 700 micrograms of vitamin A for women and 900 micrograms for men. Taking over 2,800 micrograms can lead to toxic symptoms.

Researchers speculate that supplements of this nutrient might have a place in high risk patients such as those who are fair skinned, have a history of sunburn or a lot of moles on their skin. For the rest of us, if you're concerned about skin cancer, be smart about the sun and supplement with a multivitamin that has the benefits of vitamin A as one of many nutrients. These people should also avoid the sun, use sun protection consistently and have an annual skin exam by a dermatologist.

FREE Bonus Secret Health Reports - For a limited time you can grab 5 FREE essential health reports from the Daily Health Bulletin. Click through now to discover more about melanoma risk and how to recognize the warning signs.

Original article

Vitamin D Facts Tell Us We Receive Health Benefits From The Sunshine Vitamin

The following Vitamin D facts tell us that the real connection between skin cancer and ultraviolet rays is overexposure. Our body produces Vitamin D when our skin is exposed to the rays of natural sunlight. The beneficial rays of natural sunlight cannot penetrate glass. In our home or in a car, we cannot receive the beneficial Vitamin D from the sun.

It is very difficult to receive adequate amounts of Vitamin D from our diet. Sunlight is the most reliable way. It would take at least ten large glasses of Vitamin D fortified milk daily just to get a very minimum level of supply. The further you live from the equator, the longer sun exposure is needed to generate Vitamin D. Canada, the UK and most US states are far from the equator.

If you have dark pigmented skin you may need 20 to 30 times as much exposure as fair skinned people to generate the same amount of Vitamin D. Because of this sunlight deficiency, prostrate cancer is prevalent among black men.

A sufficient level of Vitamin D is necessary for absorption of calcium in your intestines. A deficiency of this vitamin renders calcium supplements useless. A chronic deficiency of Vitamin D takes months of supplementation and sunlight exposure to reverse and rebuild your bones and nervous system.

One of the Vitamin D facts that most people wouldn't suspect is that overuse of sunscreen blocks your body's ability to generate Vitamin D by 95%. This can create a deficiency and actually cause disease. Note that I said "overuse of sunscreen", as sunscreen and protective clothing are necessary beyond a certain amount of exposure.

It is impossible to generate too much Vitamin D into your body from exposure to the sun. Your body will naturally only generate what it needs. A word of caution is that beyond this point you are overexposing yourself to the UV rays and this is when damage occurs on your skin.

Press on your sternum firmly and if it hurts, you may be suffering from a chronic Vitamin D deficiency right now. Before your body can use Vitamin D it is activated by your kidneys and liver. If you have kidney disease or liver damage, the ability of your body to activate Vitamin D may be greatly impaired. Vitamin D from natural sunlight is one of the most healing influences in your body and it is absolutely free.

Again, if you're unable to obtain enough sunlight exposure, do take good quality Vitamin D supplements along with any other vitamin/mineral supplements you may need. Any qualified holistic doctor could help to determine any deficiencies in your body.

Knowing these Vitamin D facts early on in life and carrying them throughout your lifetime would be a wise decision for anyone. So receive the health benefits of Vitamin D without being afraid. Just be sensible.

Gary Harmon is a 20 year survivor of stage III squamous cell carcinoma skin cancer. So, much of what he says comes from his own experiences. If you want to learn more about skin cancer visit his website at http://www.skin-cancer-experiences.com/. If you have any personal experience with skin cancer at any stage, you may share it here. To learn about the point when benefits from sun exposure stop and damage begins, Click Here.

Original article

The Benefits Of Drinking Coffee On Common Skin Cancers

A recent study is the first large research to examine the benefits of drinking coffee on three varieties of skin cancer - finding that women who consume over 3 cups of coffee a day showed a 20% lesser risk of having basal cell carcinoma (BCC), and men a 9% lower risk compared to those who did not have at least one cup of coffee per month. Drinking decaffeinated coffee didn't have the same effect on the chances of basal cell cancers, the most common form of skin cancer, accounting for nearly 90% of all skin cancers, leaving researchers to speculate that caffeine is the important ingredient in terms of cancer.

As the most common form of human cancer, over one million new incidences of skin cancer are diagnosed each year. Rates of all three types, basal cell, squamous cell and the most dangerous, melanoma, have been going up each year. The most common warning of skin cancer's approach is a change in the look of your skin (a new growth or sore that won't heal).

Earlier research has suggested that coffee drinking might offer some protection for non-melanoma skin cancer, however the results haven't been consistent, and have mostly come in animals or from studies in labs.

This most recent research involved examining the effects of drinking coffee on skin cancer risk for over 110,000 subjects who took part in two large studies.

The subjects were followed for 22-24 years, on average. During that time, just over 25,000 cases of cancer of the skin occurred. These included all three types - nearly 21,000 basal cell carcinomas, just under 2,000 squamous cell carcinomas, with 740 of the more serious melanomas.

The team saw that the more caffeinated coffee a subject drank, the lower their risk for basal cell carcinomas, but not the other two types.

Some researchers believe that caffeine is likely to have some protective effect as the risk of developing cancer of the skin was inversely (went down when another measure went up) related to coffee drinking.

It's hard to say why coffee might help with one type of cancer but not others. It may be that the biology of the different skin cancers is a factor. Caffeine seems to help stop skin cancer through killing off the small numbers of precancerous cells, which have been damaged by the sun and are currently dividing. They need to be removed from the body, before they get chance to do any harm, and caffeine appears to do this.

Beyond coffee and tea, other rich sources of caffeine are kola nuts and cocoa beans, and caffeine can also be found in some over the counter pain medications, cold remedies and diet pills. Interesting that caffeine is known to be a mild painkiller and increases the effectiveness of other such medications.

Of course there are many steps you can take, far more effective than relying on the benefits of drinking coffee to impact your risk of this most common form of skin cancer. If you're fair skinned, seeing a dermatologist regularly, and having suspicious growths removed before they cause trouble is key. As is avoiding a bad sunburn at any age in life. If you live in an area that gets high levels of UV radiation, you're also more at risk, and should take care to cover up and seek shade when out in the sun, especially during peak hours. Researchers are also looking at the effects of drinking coffee and then going out in the sun. There are also investigations underway about adding caffeine to sunscreen to make it that much more effective against skin cancer.

FREE Bonus Secret Health Reports - For a limited time you can grab 5 FREE essential health reports from the Daily Health Bulletin. Click through now to discover more on the benefits of drinking coffee on common skin cancer.

Original article