It was long known that vitamin deficiency can lead to ill health. But no one could have been prepared for the recent discovery that suggests a link between the occurrence of breast cancer in women and Vitamin D deficiency.

This finding has sparked a series of studies trying to establish a cause and effect relationship. One such study showed that those women who suffered from Vitamin D deficiency at the time of diagnosis of breast cancer were also 94 per cent more likely to experience cancer spread in comparison with women who had adequate levels of Vitamin D.

Although this study has not clearly established a cause and effect relationship, it nevertheless does suggest strongly that women must maintain adequate levels of Vitamin D in their bodies.

The buck does not stop here. There is a study that suggests that maintaining optimal Vitamin D levels may actually prevent certain kinds of cancers particularly that of the breast.

This does makes sense as breast cancer cells have Vitamin D receptors. When these receptors are activated with adequate Vitamin D, it sets off a series of molecular reactions that can make the cancerous cells slow down their growth rate and quite often even die or at least become less aggressive.

It is almost certain that women who have been diagnosed with cancer and have had adequate Vitamin D levels have had less aggressive cancer in comparison with those who had inadequate vitamin D levels.

Just when it seemed that a pattern was emerging in the link between Vitamin D and cancer, a recent study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, US, reports that a 400 IU Vitamin D supplementation in post menopausal women did not reduce their susceptibility to breast cancer.

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