Sunshine, Vitamin D, and Lymphoma

Interesting research from the journal PLOS One on Lymphoma and Vitamin D: Can spending time in the sun keep you from getting Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma?

Please notice that I'm asking that as a question. I'm not entirely sure the answer is Yes (though that is what the researchers conclude).

The study is called "Vitamin D Status and Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: An Updated Meta-Analysis."

As the title says, this study is a meta-analysis. That means the researchers didn't conduct a study on patients, the way many studies are done. Instead, they looked at a whole bunch of other studies that other people had done, and then came to a conclusion about what all of those studies might tell us.

That has some advantages (there's a lot of data from a lot of patients at different times), but also some disadvantages (different studies might have been conducted in different ways, using different methods, maybe with patients that are not very much alike, so they are hard to compare. As the researchers make clear, many of the patients in the studies they looked at were caucasian, and from North America).

I think that's important to be clear about before we get into this. They did NOT take two large groups of patients, make sure they were similar, and then compare them. They basically did a Google search of medical journal articles that mentioned vitamin D, sunshine, lymphoma, and related keywords, and then compared the results that they found.

(But, also,to be clear, that doesn't mean that kind of study doesn't have some value, either.)

The study looked at 30 other studies, involving over 56,000 NHL patients, looking at exposure to sunshine, Vitamin D intake through diet or supplements, and Vitamin D levels in the blood.

They found that people with high sun exposure had a smaller risk of developing NHL and various subtypes (including FL). Taking vitamin D supplements or getting it through food (which is pretty hard to do) didn't have any effects. Supplements are OK, but the body doesn't absorb the Vitamin D as easily as it does with the vitamin D that gets created by sun exposure.

I know this is a popular topic for a lot of you. There is some evidence that Vitamin D levels are important in preventing lymphoma, and for keeping it in check. It's not enough evidence to have oncologists say it's something we must all do (and this meta-analysis doesn't say that, either). So I don't recommend sunbathing as a lymphoma treatment.

But, in the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I do take Vitamin D every day. And since someone is going to ask, I'll tell you that I take 5000mg a day. My doctor recommended Vitamin D years ago, and I used to take 1000mg in the summer (when I got more sun exposure) and 2000 in the winter (when I got less). Two years ago, my levels were low, so she recommended I go up to 3000 year-round. I went with 5000 because it was easier to take one pill that three 1000mg pills.

I live in the northern United States where the sun isn't as strong as other parts of the world. I am fair-skinned, and I don't spend a lot of time in direct sunlight, because I don't need to add skin cancer to my list of health issues.

So, to be clear: I don't think my Vitamin D levels have anything to do with my status as a Follicular Lymphoma patient. In other words, I don't think taking Vitamin D is the reason I haven't needed treatment for 9 years. I take it because I've read enough about the health benefits -- many of them, that don't include cancer -- and my doctor recommended it. It's an easy, and (for me) inexpensive thing to do, and that makes it worth the chance that it will help me.

As with everything, it's good to do some research, and then talk to your doctor about what you've found out. I'm not a doctor, so my experience should not be taken as medical advice.

It's also good to remember that there are no shortcuts to curing or controlling cancer, and a 25 cent pill or a day at the beach probably won't do that job.

But Fake Dr. Bob is happy to give you this prescription: on a sunny day, put on some sunscreen and a hat and sunglasses and spend a little time outside. Go for a walk. Weed your garden. Pick some fruit. Feel the warmth on your face. Remember and enjoy little things that make you appreciate being alive, even if it's just for a few minutes.