May 2007 follow up: Is melanoma simply a vitamin D deficiency cancer?

[James Semmel]

TO: All melanoma researchers, doctors, and patients.

The last few months of posts utilized studies from the 1980's to not
only reveal the precise cause of melanoma but also predict its exact
location. In summary, it seems there is a negative feedback loop that
adjusts the amount of vitamin D (cholecalciferol) coming from the skin
depending on the circulating 25D, which is the vitamin D prehormone
produced in the liver. A larger amount of 25D--even from dietary
sources--would decrease D3 production in the skin, and a smaller
amount of 25D would increase D3 production in the skin. If the body
is not getting sufficient D3, then the skin makes an all-out, last-
ditch effort to produce more via uncontrolled skin growth, but if it
still cannot do so, then melanoma spreads throughout the body and
there is a catastrophic failure--just as there should be from a
vitamin D deficiency.

Breast cancer and prostate cancer therefore cannot possibly be vitamin
D deficiency cancers, because melanoma would kill the person first.
(Of course, this conclusion was already evident from merely realizing
that a vitamin D deficiency cancer should be diagnosed in all ages of
both genders, yet breast cancer affects primarily women and prostate
cancer only men.)

I am very interested in further questions or comments about my
discovery that melanoma is a vitamin D deficiency cancer but breast,
prostate, and colon cancers are not. Thank you for carefully
considering these novel ideas.

James Semmel
Albuquerque, New Mexico

reference:
http://www.mpip.org/bb/shtml/380953.shtml
Last month's follow up to the 4th annual discussion: "Is melanoma
simply a vitamin D deficiency cancer?"

[Ed Friedman]

James Semmel wrote:
> I am very interested in further questions or comments about my
> discovery that melanoma is a vitamin D deficiency cancer but breast,
> prostate, and colon cancers are not. Thank you for carefully
> considering these novel ideas.
>

James,

You are correct that prostate cancer and breast cancer are not vitamin D
deficiency diseases, but vitamin D plays an enormous role in both
diseases. For both, darker skin color results in increased incidence
plus darker skin color results in less vitamin D being produced from
sunlight. Also, vitamin D has at least 6 anti-cancer properties for
both breast and prostate cancer:

1. Activates caspase-3
2. Activates caspase-9
3. Decreases ER-alpha
4. Decreases bcl-2
5. Kills mitochondria by means of a caspase-independent mechanism,
resulting in cell death
6. Increases AS3, a protein which shuts off prostate cancer and breast
cancer proliferation

On the negative side, high dosages of vitamin D results in
hypercalcemia, and researchers are working on analogs of vitamin D that
maintain its anticancer properties while avoiding hypercalcemia.

Ed Friedman

[James Semmel]

Hi Ed!

It sounds like you are zoomed in way too far, missing the forest for
the trees, so to speak. You might consider why prostate cancer
becomes more common in the elderly.

Good luck!
james

[Dave P]

An American study scheduled for a June release compared the health of
some 1,200 female patients, some of whom took a vitamin D supplement
while others didn't.

The number of patients who reduced their risk of cancer by taking a
vitamin D supplement -- 60 percent -- was so unexpectedly high that
some initially believed it to be a typographical error.

This study, and many similar ones, may force conventional medicine to
re-evaluate its vitamin D recommendations. A deficiency in vitamin D
figures into many diseases in addition to cancer. One researcher
pointed out, "We don't really know what the status of chronic disease
is in the North American population, until we normalize vitamin D
status."

Especially for Vitamin D and prostate cancer where most of these type
of cancers occur where sunlight and vitamin d is scarce in winter
months.

[Ed Friedman]

James,

That one is easy - when levels of T are high (teen-age years), prostate
cancer cannot grow because the rate of growth is less than the rate of
cell death. As T levels drop, a critical point is reached usually by
the late 20's, in which prostate cancer can proliferate because the rate
of growth is greater than the rate of cell death. As T levels continue
to drop, the chance of getting prostate cancer does not increase, but
the aggressiveness of the prostate cancer (if you do get it) does increase.

Ed Friedman

[Bill]

Ed, you left out the nexus between T level and cell growth/
apoptosis. :-)

Bill Denton
RP 2/12/02
PSA 1.5
Memphis

[James Semmel]

Researchers gone wild!

[James Semmel]

Ed,

Like the researchers, you're still zoomed in too far. Hint: Rather
than speculating on the biochemical, zoom out and think biomechanical.

Good luck,
james