CALCIUM AND VITAMIN D PROMOTE COLORECTAL HEALTH
Cell health in the colon and rectum could be normalised by a combination of calcium and vitamin D, thereby offering potential protection from tumour development, according to researchers from Emory University, the University of Minnesota, and the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health. They conducted a pilot, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial in 92 men and women with a history of benign colorectal tumours. Led by Veronika Fedirko, the researchers randomly assigned the participants to receive daily calcium (2.0 g) and/or vitamin D3 supplements (800 IU), or placebo for six months. The researchers found that markers of the health of cells were found to increase by 201, 242, and 25 per cent in the calcium, vitamin D, and calcium plus vitamin D groups relative to the placebo. "These results indicate that calcium and vitamin D promote colorectal epithelial cell differentiation and may ‘normalize' the colorectal crypt proliferative zone in sporadic adenoma patients, and support further investigation of calcium and vitamin D as chemopreventive agents against colorectal neoplasms," wrote Febirko and her co-workers. These findings were published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.