Vitamin D was already known to protect against breast cancer and from the bowel cancer, but, according to The New York Times, a new study, published in the American journal Epidemiology, shows that too much vitamin D deficiency can also increase the risk of uterine fibroids.
Many studies have already shown that vitamin D protects against various diseases, but this is the first to examine the link between lack of vitamin D and fibroids, benign tumors of the uterus that can cause pain and bleeding.
The researchers randomly selected 620 white women and 410 black women aged 35 to 49. They determined their vitamin D levels with blood tests and their health with questionnaires.
About two-thirds of women have fibroids. Across the group, only 10% of black women and 50% of white women had vitamin D levels above 20 nanograms per milliliter, which is generally considered a benchmark.
After adjusting for age, physical activity, sun exposure, and other variables, they found that having a vitamin D level above 20 decreased the risk for fibroids by 32%, and that every 10 nanograms per milliliter increase in vitamin D has been associated with a 20% lower risk of having a fibroid.
Lead author Donna Day Baird, an epidemiologist with the National Institutes of Health, warns that this was only an epidemiological study and needed to be replicated. Yet, she said, “sufficient levels of vitamin D are probably good for several health effects, and fibroids can be one of them.“
