Scientists have revealed that vitamin D, one of the most important vitamins found in fatty fish, provides immunity against cancer.
A study showed that mice fed a diet rich in vitamin D had stronger immune resistance against experimentally transplanted cancers and responded better to immunotherapy treatment than mice that did not receive vitamin D.
Scientists revealed that this nutrient triggers a process that produces Bacteroides fragilis bacteria in the intestine, and this provides the mice with the necessary immune support.
The body is known to synthesize vitamin D from foods such as sunlight, fatty fish, egg yolks and some dairy products. In winter months or in regions close to the poles, it may be difficult to get enough sunlight.
The study, which involved researchers from the Francis Crick Institute in London, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Aalborg University in Denmark, sheds light on the promise of new insights and treatments for cancers that work on the gut microbiome.
"This may one day be important for treating cancer in humans, but we don't know how or why vitamin D has this effect through the microbiome. We can't be certain that correcting vitamin D deficiency provides a benefit in preventing or treating cancer," said senior author Caetano Reis e Sousa, head of the Crick Immunobiology Laboratory. "More studies are needed before we can say this," he said.
Symptoms of having too little vitamin D in the body include fatigue, bone aches or pain, feelings of depression or sadness, hair loss, muscle weakness, loss of appetite and a weak immune system.
Approximately five to 30 minutes of sun exposure per day without sunscreen is recommended because creams containing SPF can inhibit the body's ability to absorb UVB rays to effectively create vitamin D.
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