Vitamin D deficiency is the Killer in our Midst
We all know that sunshine causes skin cancer. Even little kids know that. Raising questions about it is likely to cause much rolling of eyes and shaking of heads. EVERYBODY KNOWS, as Leonard Cohen’s song goes. Sun exposure causes skin cancer, including deadly melanomas, end of story. SLIP SLOP SLAP. It’s a lot like FAT MAKES YOU FAT: Bumper sticker science.
So what do we make of this? The highest rates of melanoma are recorded in these cold states of the USA: Delaware, Vermont, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Oregon, Montana, Iowa, Utah, Washington and Maine. The US states that get the most sunshine are Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Hawaii, California, and Florida.
It’s the same story in Europe, where the Scandinavian countries get the least sunshine yet have the highest rates of malignant melanoma. The map shows the incidence of melanoma in men in 2012, figures are per 100,000.
‘Vitamin D and Melanoma: What Do We Tell Our Patients?’
This heading of an article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology gives us a hint of the massive grey area that exists here. The conundrum is this: A number of studies have found that people ‘with low vitamin D levels might be at higher risk of developing cancer, having cancer progress, or dying of cancer including melanoma.’