Are you vitamin D-ficient? - Breast- and Bone-Health Alert

Shape, May, 2002

Vitamin D not only works with calcium to build strong bones, it may also help prevent breast cancer. Some recent findings indicate that you may need more D than you're getting:

* Breast-cancer deaths in the southwestern United States are only half what they are in the northeast. That's because ultraviolet-B rays in sunlight cue the body to produce vitamin D, which is believed to protect against the disease, the journal Cancer reports. Vitamin D is also contained in milk, egg yolks, butter, fortified margarine and fish oils, but because amounts in food are small and sunlight can cause skin problems, you may need supplements, especially in northern states in winter.

Mary Ellen Strote

* Even if you get the RDA for vitamin D -- 200 IU daily -- you may still be deficient, a study of almost 800 women ages 18-35 found. Women should get 1,000 IU daily, advises researcher Reinhold Vieth, Ph.D., from Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. The current safe limit is 2,000 IU daily, but until the RDA is raised Vieth suggests requesting a 25-hydroxy-vitamin-D blood test to determine your level.

Karen Asp